LORD Alan Sugar tried to declare himself a non-UK resident in a bid to avoid paying a £186 million tax bill, it is claimed.
The Apprentice boss reportedly intended to pay no UK tax on a £390 million dividend taken from his company in 2021.
He wanted non-residency due to spending less than 91 days in Britain that year, according to a Sunday Times probe.
If he had been successful in declaring himself a non-resident, he would have been liable to pay tax in another jurisdiction.
Sugar, 76, had spent months in Australia hosting their Celebrity Apprentice show – but all members of the House of Lords are automatically UK residents.
It meant he had to stump up the HMRC payment in full on the income earned from holding company Amshold Group.
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The billionaire businessman, who took a six-month unexplained leave from the Lords until June last year, is taking action against his tax advisers for the oversight.
His spokesman Andrew Bloch said: “Lord Sugar is a UK tax resident and he always has been.
“All his income has been taxed on the basis of his UK residence and is fully paid up.”
The Sunday Times Rich List has previously estimated Lord Sugar's net worth at £1.21billion.
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This makes him the 121st richest person in the UK.
The business mogul has earned his money through a string of business ventures, most notably founding Amstrad, a computer and electronics company, in 1968.
At the height of its success, Amstrad alone was worth an estimated £1.2billion, however, it was sold in 2007 to BSkyB for £125million.
Lord Sugar first rose to mainstream attention as frontman of The Apprentice.
Lord Sugar has also appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and An Audience with Jeremy Beadle.
Lord Sugar was chairman of Tottenham Hotspur from 1991 to 2001.
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