LONDON — Top Italian jockey Frankie Dettori said he is “working closely” with Britain’s tax authorities after losing a challenge to avoid being publicly named in a tax dispute.
Dettori has been involved in a legal dispute with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which denied him some deductions for income tax.
A judge ruled in 2022 that Dettori could have anonymity during the case, Britain’s Press Association reported. The jockey was named in a court ruling Monday after losing a bid to continue having the publication of his name suppressed.
The PA news agency was among the media who challenged Dettori’s right to anonymity and has published a statement from him, in which he said he has hired new advisers “to unravel the mess that I have been put in.”
“A few years ago I employed the services of professional specialist tax advisers to look after mine and my family’s financial affairs,” Dettori said in the statement. “A structure was created and I was told that it had been approved by HMRC.
“Years later HMRC is now challenging that structure. My former advisers have since been dismissed.”
Dettori added that his new advisers and management team “are also working closely with HMRC to resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.”
Hui Ling McCarthy, the lawyer working for HMRC, said the fact that Dettori “may be in the public eye and may prefer the public not to know about his affairs does not justify the principle of open justice being restricted,” PA reported.
Dettori announced in December 2022 that he would be retiring at the end of the 2023 season, but reversed that decision and moved to compete in the United States.