A GIF History Of Gary Barlow's Tax Avoidance...

From national treasure to paying at his leisure.

So Gary Barlow's Been Accused Of Avoiding Millions In Tax...

A court has ruled that Barlow and his Take That bandmates Mark Owen and Howard Donald owe up to £20 million to the government due to investing in schemes that were designed to avoid tax.

How Could This Happen? Isn't He Beloved By All And A National Treasure?

Well he's certainly loved by James Corden, but beneath the cuddly designer stubbled exterior... Just let us explain...

As you probably know, in the early 1990 Gary was a founding member of Take That

The early 90s was a strange and perplexing place...

They were unbelieveably successful, gaining 8 UK number ones in the 90s...

Which, as Barlow wrote or co-wrote many of the songs, made him very rich indeed...

But Then Take That split-up, and the dream was over and Gary was reduced to...

...Getting fat and appearing in Heartbeat

As everyone thought Robbie was much more fun.

But All Was Not Lost...

Because it turned out the teenage girls who loved Take That in the 90s were now women who still loved Take That

And the band's 2006 reunion was wildly successful, spawning more No. 1s

And of course making the lads a few quid

Gary in particular was so popular that he even became pals with the guy who wanted to be Prime Minister...

By 2010 Gary, Howard and Mark had more money than they knew what to do with...

So along with their manager they invested it in a partnership, Larkdale LLP, which then made a £25m loss which could help offset their tax bills.

Then Gary's mate became PM and told us we all had to do without and tighten our belts

But people didn't believe him, and got angry that the very rich often seemed to pay very little in tax.

So journalists began investigating alleged tax dodging schemes like Gary and his friends'

Meanwhile Take That and Gary went from strength to strength, Gaz even got to replace Simon Cowell on The X Factor

And palled up with royalty, organising the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and getting an OBE

He's practically become the court musician of Cameron's Britain!

Some think he even was a bit scarily fond of his royal appointment

Meanwhile The Times got its teeth into rumbling tax avoiders, the most high profile being Jimmy Carr, who Cameron called 'Morally Wrong'...

The Take That lads' arrangements were also flagged up as suspicious, so the taxman began investigating...

Last week a judge ruled that the scheme that the former Take That members were involved in was for the purposes of avoiding tax.

HMRC may demand £20m in unpaid tax

Leaving Gary's National Treasure status in tatters, and everyone with a whopping bill...

Still, at least David Cameron still thinks, "he's done a lot for the country" and should keep that MBE