Oleksandr Zinchenko hit with £300,000 HMRC bill as image-rights company enters liquidation

Oleksandr Zinchenko has been ordered to pay £300,000 to HM Revenue & Customs after losing a dispute over unpaid corporation tax, according to public records and media reports.

The 28-year-old’s company, Alex Zinchenko Image Rights (OZIR), was put into voluntary liquidation towards the end of August, and reports say he has also been billed a further £35,000 by his accountants.

HMRC previously sought to collapse the company through the High Court, and Zinchenko’s representatives reached a settlement in February in which they agreed to pay the outstanding sums. The precise amount covered by that earlier settlement was not disclosed in public filings.

Zinchenko, who is on loan at Nottingham Forest from Arsenal, is reported to earn about £150,000 per week at his parent club. The earnings he derives from his career in England are channelled through OZIR, according to company records. The new HMRC order relates to corporation tax liabilities connected with that company.

The defender’s three-year spell at Arsenal was paused after a deadline-day loan move to Nottingham Forest last week. In a separate development, Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo did not include Zinchenko in the club’s UEFA Europa League squad. UEFA rules require clubs to submit a fixed-size squad; Forest’s failure to name the required number of locally trained players reduced their registered first-team list to 22, which also left out several other recent signings.

Liquidation filings are a matter of public record and show OZIR’s voluntary winding up began in late August. The HMRC order follows the agency’s earlier legal action against the business; further details of the agency’s claim and the company’s liabilities are set out in court documents and insolvency notices.

Zinchenko has spent nine years playing in England, with spells at Manchester City, Arsenal and most recently on loan at Nottingham Forest. Club and tax records indicate OZIR was used to manage his image-rights income during that period.

Neither HMRC nor representatives for Zinchenko immediately provided additional comment in publicly available filings. Court records show the February settlement resolved earlier proceedings but did not prevent HMRC from seeking further enforcement or from pursuing separate outstanding liabilities recorded in the liquidation process.