Loan Charge APPG inquriy report released

Apr 4, 2019

The Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Loan Charge Group writes:

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Loan Charge has today published their Loan Charge Inquiry report into the 2019 Loan Charge. The dangerous reality of the Loan Charge, with its impact on people’s mental health, is exposed. The MPs have called for a delay and review, given there are lives at risk.

The report from Loan Charge APPG’s formal Select Committee-style inquiry had over 900 written submissions, held two oral evidence sessions: one with tax professionals including tax advisers, accountants and a tax lawyer and a second with people facing the Loan Charge. As part of the second session, the Inquiry heard from the family of a person who tragically committed suicide due to the pressure from the Loan Charge. The third and final oral evidence session was to be with HMRC and the responsible Treasury Minister, Mel Stride, but they both refused to attend. The Inquiry also included a survey, completed by 1,768 people facing the Loan Charge.

The 91-page report documents the history of loan arrangements and the reasons people entered into such schemes, and examines the conduct of HMRC and the Treasury. The report exposes HMRC’s profound failure to tackle such arrangements over many years, and the cynical way they and the Treasury instead introduced a damagingly retrospective tax.

The report shows that the retrospective Loan Charge essentially tries to bypass normal legal processes and overrides previously sacrosanct statutory taxpayer protections, denying people their legal right to challenging HMRC’s decisions. The MPs are deeply concerned that the Loan Charge undermines the rule of law, damages enterprise and sets a very dangerous precedent.

Most shockingly, the Inquiry exposes the devasting consequences the Loan Charge is having on thousands of individuals and their families. Many thousands of people face bankruptcy, with some people already having sold their homes to pay HMRC’s disputed liabilities. It also shows that HMRC and the Treasury were warned about the suicide risk from early on.

The Inquiry also reveals a cynical campaign of misinformation waged by both HMRC and the Treasury, to try to justify their policy and a cover-up of HMRC’s past failings and current conduct. The Inquiry concludes there has been deliberate misinformation and misrepresentation by both HMRC and the Treasury, in breach of both the Civil Service Code and the Ministerial Code.

You can find the inqury report here.