Damning new evidence shows that the loan charge review conclusion was fundamentally flawed and Sir Amyas Morse (now Lord Morse) who headed up the review has been told it must be revisited. The Loan Charge Action Group (LCAG) has written to Lord Morse with evidence that his conclusion that “the law was clear from December 2010” is wrong and cannot be used to justify the loan charge.
In fact the law only became clear as a result of the Rangers case and Supreme Court decision in 2017 which found that employers not employees for any tax deemed to be due.
The following evidence has emerged, which may have been withheld from Morse’s original review:
- The First Secretary and Chief Executive of HMRC repeatedly tried to obtain legal analysis in support of HMRC’s position (as previously reported by IWORK);
- HMRC have refused to share details of cases that they say justify the loan charge and facilitate their right to pursue individuals;
- It was HMRC – and not the Treasury – who came up with the idea of the loan charge, and they’ve admitted privately that they did so in order to stop people having the right to defend themselves in court;
- HMRC have admitted, and sought to cover up, the fact that recruitment agencies would be liable in many cases, and not the individual contractors;
- HMRC failed to collect tax from these recruitment agencies under existing PAYE legislation;
- HMRC themselves engaged contractors who were using loan arrangements right up until July 2020, and signed off the tax returns of these contractors without raising any concerns.
All of this evidence has come to light since the Morse Review took place in autumn 2019, and had it been known at the time the review conclusions are likely to have been very different.
Spokesperson for the Loan Charge Action Group, Steve Packham said:
“The truth about the Loan Charge and the extraordinary attempts by HMRC to twist and distort its reality is being exposed week by week as more factual evidence is revealed through Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests. We urge Lord Morse, who is now a Parliamentarian, to have the courage to admit that his review has not dealt with the fundamental injustice of the Loan Charge and to immediately back calls for a fair resolution.”
If any readers are in any doubt as to the dire impact of this fundamentally flawed policy on innocent people, they can read it here and listen to a first-hand account in our podcast episode here.
