TV presenter Sian Williams ‘willing to read news naked’

TV presenter Sian Williams’s accountant told a tax tribunal she would be willing to present her BBC show naked, but BBC bosses would not let her.
However the man who brought the case has now admitted the BBC Breakfast host had made no such suggestion.
The tribunal was to establish whether costs for hairstyling, clothing and cleaning costs to look good on screen could be tax deductible.
The tribunal – which rejected the claim – heard arguments put forward at the hearing by her accountant that “she would be prepared to read the news without clothes and only wears the clothes because her employer requires it”.
Williams’s agent Alex Armitage said the suggestion about appearing unclothed had not come from her – and she had in any case already paid the tax.
“This did not come from her. She paid her tax and as I understand it, the accountant did it off his own back,” he said.
The north London accountant who brought the case, Michael Weissbraun, admitted Williams had not actually made the comments.
He said: “She might not have said that exact form of words. It was an argument that I advanced and it was to make a point that clothes were needed not only to keep warm.
“She gave me the go-ahead (to bring the case) but it was nothing she had been involved with. There was no need for her to attend the hearing.
“She had already paid the tax. It was a question of whether she could get something back or not.”
The case arose from a tax return for Williams for the financial year 2004/5, which included expenses claims for £3,231 for clothing in the studio, £975 for hairstyling and £325 for laundry of work outfits.
At the tribunal hearing earlier this year, her accountant argued it was an implied term that she must not wear the same clothes more than twice or three times a month.
His argument about performing without clothes was was rejected as “unrealistic” by the tribunal.

Courtesy of thisislondon.co.uk