Member of Parliament for the Cities of London and Westminster, Nickie Aiken, has raised her concerns with the Government over the Loan Charge Scheme. In a letter, addressed to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman, Nickie has asked the following three questions.
If the Morse review is correct in stating that the law on this issue has been clear since 2010/2011, why did the Finance Bill of 2017 need to include new legislation to cover loan arrangements?
Many of my constituents have informed me that they only took part in these arrangements on the advice of lawyers, accountants and other licensed professionals. If the law was in fact clear then what is being done to punish these groups for providing advice that was unlawful?
Several constituents have explained to me that they declared all their arrangements to HMRC and received DOTAS numbers regarding them. Despite HMRC’s knowledge of this, nothing was done to challenge these practices. If as the Morse review states, the law has been clear since 2010, why has HMRC not dealt with this matter previously?
In the same letter Nickie also stated her opposition to people being punished by legislation retrospectively. You can read Nickie’s letter in full here.
