'Dealing with loan charge demands was worst time of my life'
A MAN who faced a large tax bill due to the loan charge said dealing with the demands for payment linked to the controversial policy had been the worst time of his life.
He told The Yorkshire Post that he had burned much of the correspondence from HMRC so that he would not be reminded of the turmoil and stress he encountered through the whole process.
He added: “ HMRC’s written correspondence always arrived on a Saturday morning and as a result absolutely wrecked weekends because of the ongoing worry and concern.
“I settled with a full payment of £168,000 (which included Class 4 NI Contributions AND Interest). It’s worth noting that the loan administrator advised me to appeal every time I received any demand from HMRC; they told me that they had been advised by QC that the scheme was fully legal and that HMRC were totally in the wrong. I had to work for several years after the final payment to make up for the loss of income.”
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was hoping that the review recognises that the loan scheme, at the time, was legal and therefore the back dated legislation was unlawful.
He added: “I recognise that the scheme was morally wrong so I am now happy that I have paid Income Tax and NI on earning but I feel incredibly aggrieved that I had to pay interest amounting to over £12,000 for late payment of tax. I would also like to see some sort of acceptance that the HMRC were wrong to be so aggressive and threatening in their pursuit of unpaid tax.”
Another man affected by the loan charge told The Yorkshire Post: “The scheme was explained by my accountant to HMRC from the very start and we received nothing back to suggest that any rules were being broken. It was explained to me that it was entirely legal and appropriate.
“From 2015 until 2022, the HMRC were relentless and I received hundreds of letters. They were incredibly aggressive and nobody seemed to care. My total bill came to just over £200,000, around £25,000 in penalties and interest, and I found just over half of that from selling assets.
“The point about all this, is that everybody should have certainty with their taxes and not have the goalposts moved years down the line. It’s a disgrace that HMRC were allowed to get away with it and the suicides are tragic.”