Eamonn Holmes was left 'furious' after losing his beloved home in a 'humiliating' five-year battle with the taxman - which reportedly cost him 'hundreds of thousands of pounds'. Get the latest entertainment news sent straight to your inbox with our weekly Showbiz newsletter We have more newsletters Get the latest entertainment news sent straight to your inbox with our weekly Showbiz newsletter We have more newsletters Eamonn Holmes has opened up about his gruelling five-year clash with tax authorities, which he admits left him feeling "bitter" and contributed to the end of his marriage with Ruth Langsford. The 64 year old telly veteran was forced to sell his cherished Belfast home to settle a hefty £250,000 tax bill, along with what's been reported as "hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees".
Eamonn insisted that he was a freelancer during his stint at ITV, claiming he never received sick pay, holiday pay or company shares. However, tax officials ruled otherwise, declaring him an employee and slapping him with a decade's worth of unpaid national insurance and tax, the Mirror reports. Reflecting on the ordeal, Eamonn described the situation as "the most stressful outside of losing my father", adding: "I had a house here [Belfast] until six weeks ago when I was forced to sell it by the Inland Revenue [HMRC].
"It's something I'm very bitter about because people think you earn lots of money and therefore you have to pay. It's like they have taken away everything I ever wo.