HMRC accused of cutting secret loan charge deal with large companies

Telegraph

9 hours ago

The tax office gave secret 85pc discounts to large companies involved in the loan charge scandal, documents s.
A Freedom of Information request has suggested that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reached generous settlement deals with multi-million pound companies who used payroll loan schemes.
Meanwhile, independent contractors were hit with life-changing bills.
The agreements came to light after a campaigner submitted a Freedom of Information request which was then revealed in Parliament by Conservative MP, Greg Smith, during Treasury Questions on Tuesday.
HMRC said it does not recognise the claims.
MPs said the revelation was 'staggering'.
Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, said: 'It is unacceptable that victims have been consistently refused the justice they deserve while large companies received settlements a decade ago.
'This information shows the need for a proper, independent inquiry that looks at the whole loan charge scandal.'
The loan charge is a controversial law that left 50,000 self-employed workers with crippling tax bills and has been linked to 10 suicides.
It was introduced in 2017 to target contractors who were paid through non-taxable loans rather than salaries.
The loan schemes date back to the 1990s, and were often marketed as HMRC-compliant by respected tax advisers.
But HMRC maintains that it never approved the schemes. It used the loan charge to claw back the unpaid tax from the workers, with many facing bills that exceeded their income.
MPs and campaigners have accused HMRC of unfairly targeting and ruthlessly hounding the contractors while failing to go after the scheme promoters.
Now, minutes of a meeting from 2019 between Lord Amyas Morse, who led the 2019 loan charge review, and the leader of the latest review, Ray McCann, reveal that HMRC offered discounts to settle the tax bills of employers who used the schemes.
In the minutes of the meeting, Mr McCann is recorded as saying: 'The earlier settlement opportunity that had been open to large companies had included significant discounts, so that eventually the companies settled for somewhere in the region of 15pc in 2015.'
He went on to say 'the contractors weren't offered these terms', and 'settlement opportunities have always had a discount, and contractor one is the only one that didn't.'
Mr McCann is currently concluding the loan charge review, which was launched in January 2025 after calls from MPs. A former HMRC inspector, he was president of a professional body of tax advisers called the Chartered Institute of Taxation from 2018 to 2019.
According to official figures, 800 companies paid HMRC £1bn through financial settlements related to the schemes between 2011 and 2015. This works out an average tax liability of £1.25m per firm.
In Parliament earlier this week, Mr Smith said: 'A recent Freedom of Information request has revealed that, for a number of schemes, HMRC has settled with large corporations for just 15pc of what was owed.
'With the loan charge review ongoing, does the Chancellor agree with me that individuals should be treated no differently from the large corporations for which this precedent has been set?'
Liberal Democrat MP Angus Macdonald, another APPG member, has tabled an Early Day motion – supported by 18 MPs so far – expressing 'astonishment' about the deals and the fact they have 'never been revealed to Parliament'.
Mike Warburton, The Telegraph's tax columnist and former director at accountants Grant Thornton, said: 'These revelations have shown in stark contrast the way the Treasury and HMRC have treated large corporate taxpayers on the one hand and small contractors on the other.'
Critics of the loan charge argue it retroactively punishes contractors who signed up to the schemes in good faith.
The large timeframes involved create massive tax bills as years' worth of interest has rolled up on the debt. In one case, an individual earning £13,000 a year landed a £250,000 bill, according to the minutes of the meeting between Mr McCann and Lord Morse.
Steve Packham, of the Loan Charge Action Group, said: 'Ten people have killed themselves as a direct result of HMRC's ruthless persecution of people who the Chancellor herself has described as 'victims of mis-selling'.
'Yet we now know that just a year before the loan charge was introduced to Parliament, HMRC agreed a deal with large companies letting them pay just 15pc of what they said they owed.'
MPs and campaigners are now demanding that the Government offer contractors the same 15pc terms given to large corporations and open an inquiry into the scandal.
Mr Smith, co-chairman of the Loan and Taxpayer Fairness APPG, said: 'It's absolutely staggering to discover that just a year before the loan charge was introduced to Parliament, that HMRC agreed a deal allowing large companies to settle for just 15pc of what HMRC said they owed, for use of similar arrangements.'
He continued: 'Regardless of what Ray McCann recommends in his report on settlement terms, all those facing the loan charge and those pushed to settle to avoid it must all be offered no more than 15pc as full and final settlement.'
HMRC said all settlements are agreed after considering the individual facts of each case and made under our published settlement terms.
A spokesman said: 'We don't recognise these claims. We're absolutely committed to ensuring every taxpayer, regardless of size, pays the tax that's legally due.
'Given an independent review is under way it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.'