CORONATION Street legend Bill Roache tried to sell a property to clear his £546,000 tax bill, court papers show.
The Ken Barlow star, 91, had been given until January to make the payment in full - but a prospective buyer pulled out.
The court had not been told by last month and so is pressing ahead with the action.
It comes after The Sun obtained High Court documents revealing Roache’s whopping tax bill.
He initially owed £588,015.18 and entered an agreement in 2018 to clear it.
But the papers show he has only paid back £41,666.65 - meaning he still owes £546,348.53.
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That includes £14,699 in interest payments plus late-payment fines of more than £8,000.
Roache, who owns a mortgage-free home worth £900,000 in Wilmslow, Cheshire, tried to sell a property to repay his debt to HMRC.
No further details of the property are revealed in the documents.
They state: "On 22 August 2023 a statutory demand was served upon the debtor by personal service by handing the same to the debtor on 21 August 2023 after 16:30 hours in respect of a debt of £588,015.18 of which the above mentioned balance of £546,348.53 remains outstanding.
"The petition is filed late as the debtor was allowed until 22 January 2024 to make payment in full from the sale of property, but notification wasn’t received that the purchaser had pulled out."
Twice-wed dad-of-five Roache holds the record for being the longest-serving TV star in a continuous role, having featured on the cobbles since Corrie's first episode aired in 1960.
Despite his financial woe, a friend of the star's told the Mirror the actor is "unphased" by the situation and "doing fine".
And earlier this month he was seen driving a new £72,000 Audi in Cheshire.
He was previously declared bankrupt in 1999, and two years later creditors estimated he had £600,000 in unpaid debts.
In 2012 he became a "designated member" of a Cayman Islands-registered firm called Twofold First Services LLP, which ran a scheme that included claiming tax relief on artificial losses of a land-owning firm.
A 2018 tribunal ruled it was a tax-avoidance arrangement.
Roache’s rep was approached for comment.
