Ant Middleton banned after he and wife fail to pay £1m tax bill

Former SAS: Who Dares Wins chief instructor Ant Middleton has been prohibited from serving as a company director after his business failed to pay over £1m in tax.

Middleton, along with his wife Emilie Middleton, was the director of Sway and Starting Limited, a company offering media representation services and managing income from his television and media work, as reported by City AM.

However, according to the Insolvency Service, both Middletons failed to ensure the company paid more than £300,000 in VAT and over £800,000 in corporation tax to HMRC between 2019 and 2022. This was despite the company receiving more than £4.5m into its accounts from 2020 to 2022.

The Insolvency Service also revealed that the couple had withdrawn nearly £3m from the company as a director's loan account by the time the company went into liquidation in December 2022.

Ant Middleton later agreed to repay £300,000 of the director's loan as a full and final settlement with the liquidator.

The Middletons, both aged 44 and residing in Chelmsford, Essex, have been disqualified as company directors for four years.

Dave Magrath, director of investigation and enforcement services at the Insolvency Service, commented: "Companies not paying the tax they should deprives the government of the money it needs to pay for the country's defence services, our NHS, schools and universities, and transport systems. Ant and Emilie Middleton had legal and financial duties as directors to ensure their company paid the corporation tax and VAT it owed. Instead, they were taking millions of pounds out of the company at that time. This disqualification should serve as a deterrent to other directors that if you do not pay your taxes while directing money elsewhere, you are at risk of being banned."

Ant Middleton established Sway and Starting in September 2014, with his wife joining as a director in May 2019. The firm, previously known as Middleton Global Limited, failed to pay any of the £869,351 in corporation tax it owed between September 2019 and March 2021, according to the Insolvency Service.

The service also revealed that Sway and Starting only paid £267,443 in VAT out of a total of £651,961 it owed between March 2020 and September 2022, leaving £384,518 unpaid.

Insolvency Service analysis of the company's bank accounts showed that £4,592,200 was deposited into the firm between April 2020 and November 2022. By the time of the company's liquidation, the pair also owed Sway and Starting at least £2,961,745 through their director's loan account, the Insolvency Service reported.