Graham Webber provides an update on disguised remuneration schemes and the tax authority’s attitude to them.
For any readers who have followed the articles I have contributed to this magazine over the past few years, I’m sorry to say that this one will revisit some of those areas.
Despite the passage of time and the cases going to Tribunal and beyond, it must be said that clarity and resolution remain as far away as ever for contractors alleged to have used ‘disguised remuneration’ (DR) schemes. In fact if anything, we have seen the situation worsen in some areas.
First, there seems to be a campaign within HMRC to punish the users of some schemes that were promoted by some well-known figures whom HMRC has been unable to stop.
Second, all attempts at brokering a resolution which would see a fair(er) answer for many clients, have been ignored or rejected. There is, however, a way forward.
Third, the long tails of the DR schemes, the alleged loans, have fallen into the hands of parties who have no scruples about adding salt to wounds and seek to collect on them.
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