More than 100 BBC presenters are under investigation for alleged tax avoidance after being suspected of wrongly using personal service companies to minimise their tax bills, HMRC has revealed.

A “very significant number of BBC news presenters” – as well as a number of staff at other broadcasters – face demands to hand over unpaid tax and national insurance contributions after HMRC launched a probe into whether stars had incorrectly declared themselves to be self-employed.

The BBC announced in July that it had moved 85 presenters onto its books as full-time employees, after a report published in 2012 found that the corporation paid more than 124 stars in excess of £150,000 a year via personal service companies.