The UK government has committed to resolving the fallout from a controversial, retroactive UK tax policy that has left thousands of IT contractors living under the shadow of life-changing tax bills since it came into force in April 2019.
In its recently announced Autumn Budget 2024, the government confirmed the policy (known as the Loan Charge) will be subject to an independent review to “help bring the matter to a close for those affected, whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers”.
The government’s wording here is interesting, because it neatly highlights the conflict and controversy at the centre of this policy, which has plunged contractors into financial ruin and been linked to at least 10 suicides.
The policy was created to claw back money HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) claims it is owed by thousands of contractors who joined loan-based remuneration schemes between December 2010 and April 2019.
Participants in these schemes are typically paid in part for the work they do in the form of non-taxable loans. This means they pay no tax on this loan-based income, allowing participants to bolster their take-home pay.
Given HMRC’s role as the UK government’s tax collection agency, it’s not difficult to see why it sought to clamp down on people using loan-based remuneration schemes to artificially minimise the amount of income tax they pay.
However, the policy’s critics claim it fails to take into account that when these schemes were first set up, many were erroneously marketed as being an “HMRC compliant” means for contractors to bolster their take-home pay, with individuals often advised to join such schemes by respected tax advisers.
Victims of mis-selling
It’s further claimed contractors were also reportedly told they would be unable to work for certain end-hirers unless they agreed to be paid in loans. For this reason, the contractors now being pursued by HMRC for backdated income tax payments claim they are victims of mis-selling, and facing financial ruin for agreeing to be part of an arrangement that trusted sources assured them was safe and compliant to participate in.
The situation has prompted calls from a 200-strong group of cross-party MPs for HMRC to stop doggedly pursuing the individuals involved, and instead direct its enforcement efforts towards the employers, agencies and scheme promoters who advised people these setups were safe to use.
Given the amount of time that has passed since contractors took part in these schemes and HMRC began its Loan Charge enforcement action, tracking these parties down could prove difficult, as many of these firms and individuals have since disappeared from the market.
Since the policy’s introduction, there has been talk of legal challenges being mounted – to overturn the policy – and campaigns, calling for the government to write off some of the tax amounts that are owed by contractors.
As confirmed by the government in its statement about its plans to place the policy under independent review,