A globe-trotting entrepreneur is facing a multimillion-pound tax bill after failing to persuade senior judges that he has non-domiciled status because his home for more than 30 years has been a Seychelles villa.

In a ruling yesterday that will be keenly studied by other “non-doms”, Lord Justice Rimer ruled that however much Robert Gaines-Cooper profoundly disagreed with the UK taxman's stance, his attempt to challenge it was “misconceived”.

The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Wilson in the Court of Appeal in London, dismissed a proposed appeal as “nothing more than an illegitimate attempt to reargue the facts”.

Although Mr Gaines-Cooper has a house in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, where he keeps his collection of paintings, classic cars and guns, he maintains that he “fell in love” with the Seychelles as long ago as 1976 and bought a French-style plantation house there, which he renovated at a cost of $2.5 million. It was perverse, he argued, that he was not recognised as a “non-domiciled” by the tax authorities when he has not been “ordinarily resident” in Britain since the mid-70s.

His barrister, Michael Flesch, QC, said that Mr Gaines-Cooper had made it clear that he “wishes to spend his last days” in the Seychelles and have his ashes scattered there.

Mr Gaines-Cooper, who is in his seventies, began a successful jukebox business in England in 1958, and set up companies in Canada, the US, Italy, Singapore, Jersey, Cyprus and the Seychelles, including a successful concern that produces surgical aids.

The Reading-born businessman insists that he “made a break” with Britain in 1976 and that his chief residence since has been been his Seychelles house, Plantation Bois Noir. But in October 2006 the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs ruled that he had never abandoned the domicile of his birth - England.

They pointed out that Mr Gaines-Cooper, despite spending many years travelling the world for his many business ventures, had maintained the house and 27-acre country estate in Henley where his second wife and son had lived for some time. His son went to an English school in 2002 and his will was drawn up under English law.

Mr Flesch argued, however, that it was simply wrong of the commissioners to take account of Mr Gaines-Cooper's actions and lifestyle over the following 28 years when considering whether he had made his “domicile of choice” in the Seychelles in 1976.

Mr Gaines-Cooper was not obliged wholly to reject England to qualify for non-domiciled status, the QC said, adding that eminent witnesses had told the commissioners that he had “fallen in love” with the Seychelles and wished to “stay there for ever”.

Mr Flesch said that there would have been no point in his planting a notoriously slow-growing coco-de-mer tree at Plantation Bois Noir in the 1970s if he had intended to move on.

But Revenue & Customs were adamant that, despite Mr Gaines-Cooper's years of travelling in search of business opportunities, his true roots were in England and that, at least for tax purposes, he had never left this country.

Yesterday Lord Justice Rimer agreed. He described the tax commissioners' decision as “particularly careful” and said it had already been confirmed once, last November, by a High Court judge, Mr Justice Lewison, in a ruling that was “redolent of his usual clarity and insight”.

Of Mr Flesch's arguments that the commissioners' decision was irrational and “ran directly contrary to the undisputed evidence”, the judge said: “I have to say that I regard this as a very poor point.” In ruling that Mr Gaines-Cooper had maintained a presence in England, the commissioners simply did not accept his plea that he made Plantation Bois Noir his chief residence in 1976, Lord Justice Rimer said.

The appeal ruling means that Mr Gaines-Cooper now faces a huge tax demand for the years 1993 to 2004.

He still has one final hope of avoiding a bill that is certain to run to several million pounds. Last month a separate judicial review was heard by Mr Justice Lloyd Jones and judgment is awaited.

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure