EastEnders’ Adam Woodyatt in £139k tax bill row as Ian Beale star rakes in £2.5m in a year
He ran the firm with his ex-wife
TELLY star Adam Woodyatt’s company is being chased by the tax office for a monster bill after breaking up his management firm.
HMRC has told the star’s accountants that the firm owes £139,000 in Corporation Tax but his number crunchers are querying the figure.
Accounts which handle the break-up of the firm run by the EastEnders star and his ex-wife Beverley show the couple shared £412,000 from XL Management Ltd’s coffers.
The figures compiled by insolvency firm BLB also show that £99,000 has been handed over to HMRC after Adam and Beverley’s company was put into voluntary liquidation last year.
But in a report sent to Companies House last week, the accountancy firm says: “In 22 January 2024, I received a Proof of Debt from HMRC in the sum of £139.481.29 claiming for the Corporation Tax liability and Section 455 tax.
“The claim did not take into account the dividend paid in November 2023 and it has not separated the elements of taxation owing, and no response has been provided as regards the treatment of Section 455 tax.
“For this reason, matters are ongoing, and I continue to correspond with HMRC to understand what liabilities, if any, may be outstanding.”
Books for the company suggest that he earned around £2.5million in two years.
Now he’s applied to have XL Management Ltd – which takes in cash from his acting work – to be voluntarily liquidated.
He lodged papers with Companies House pledging that the firm was solvent and the cash will be divided amongst the directors – Adam and ex-wife Beverley.
The actor returned to EastEnders after starring in the hit musical My Fair Lady and has been living from a motor home since the marriage failed in 2019 after 22 years.
The couple is now divorced and has come to a financial agreement over the split.
Adam also appeared in I’m a Celebrity in 2020 and earns a fortune selling £40-a-time video messages to fans on the Memmo platform.
The keen cook also took part in food demonstrations for restaurants over the summer at fetes and festivals.
Previous accounts for his XL Management Ltd firm show that for 2020 and 2021, he paid a total of £496,188 in Corporation Tax – based on a fifth of its taxable income of around £2.5m.
The star also paid £182,486 in Corporation Tax in 2019.
Adam and Beverley are both directors of XL but the Ian Beale icon – who was paid a six-figure sum to star in ITV’s I’m a Celebrity – is the majority shareholder and in overall control.
The couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in Disney World, Florida, in April 1998. But he quit the marriage in August 2019.
The company had been set up as a talent agency to attract other actors but Adam was the only client.
He formed the company with Beverley who masterminded his career and negotiated panto deals and his six-figure EastEnders pay packet.
But after splitting from Beverley, he pulled the plug on the firm’s website.
XL – based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire – offered “personal management service” and the one-page website gave an email address for actor submissions.
But the TV favourite – who has also appeared in a stage version of a Peter James crime drama since leaving Albert Square– was the only star on the books.
And he’s now being represented by a London-based firm.
The couple also ran a gin business together but have also ceased producing the booze.
Adam launched £40 a bottle Neat gin in 2017.
And the booze received rave reviews from experts and punters alike – with the star even forging a deal to supply the grog to restaurants run by food icon Marco Pierre White.
But the firm struggled to earn cash and in 2019 made their final batch.
