Take That pay back £20m tax

Take That have paid back the £20 million they owed the British government over a tax avoidance scheme.

Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald put £66 million into tax shelter, Icebreaker, alongside 1,000 other investors where they put money into creative industries, which a judge ruled gave them tax relief when their losses became bigger than their investments.

Their manager Jonathan Wild was also involved in the scheme but their former Take That bandmates Jason Orange and Robbie Williams were not, the Daily Mirror newspaper reports.

In 2014, Gary took to Twitter to apologise for his actions.

He wrote: "I want to apologise to anyone who was offended by the tax stories earlier this year. With a new team of accountants we are working to settle things with all parties involved ASAP."

Judge Colin Bishopp previously ruled that the scheme was mainly intended for tax avoidance rather than investment. Other members of the scheme, though, appealed against the decision.

Meanwhile, it was previously revealed that Gary is reportedly set to earn £10 million this year, thanks to three West End musicals, a Take That tour and an album.

A source said: "Gary always wanted to put on a Take That musical and the band have written enough tracks for a score. Using a Saturday night TV show to find talent will give the musical huge publicity."

And Gary is reportedly working on a television show to rival ‘The X Factor’.

An insider shared: "This is Gary’s own format that will be made by the BBC entertainment team. If it is a success he could make hundreds of millions of pounds around the world like Cowell has with ‘X Factor’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

"Cowell is going to be furious because he thinks it was ‘X Factor’ that gave Gary the experience working on a show like this. Now he’s gone and set up a direct rival.

"He’s always been paranoid about Gary trying to set up a huge entertainment company incorporating music and TV, which seems to be happening."