Is H M R C Correct To Go After This Avoidance Scheme?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47801966
I just wonder why they didn't clamp down at the start rather than letting people do it for 20 years and then hotting them with a massive bill.

[Spicerack]

I think anyone, even social workers, would know when they are in a tax avoidance/evasion scheme.
No sympathy from me. Pay up.

[Spicerack]

Why didn't they act earlier? Incompetence, I expect.

[Old_Geezer]

If it is an avoidance scheme then legally no foul, and HMRC need to take the issue up with the government. If it is an evasion scheme then the tax is owed and maybe a fine also.

One would think it was the responsibility of the scheme creators to ensure it was agreed, or get it argued in court and settled, before encouraging others to use it. HMRC claim they have not approved it. So surely the thing has reached this point before anyone is seriously inconvenienced.

[Zacs-Master]

I would imagine the legal process of determining whether it was against the law would be to blame for the delay in action.

[fiction-factory]

Sorry , not read the link but if it's the scheme whereby they were told the salary was an interest fee loan which would never have to be repaid then they should have smelled a rat. I have sympathy though in that their employer may have insisted it's this way (with slightly lower pay) or look elsewhere, and if HMRC were aware of it for so long and didn't challenge it I can see why some are very peeved now

[Peter Pedant]

if it is too good to be true
then it probably is

I think this is the scheme:
do you have income on which you have to pay tax ( yes)
then pay it into this company and you dont have to !
( goodie )

I looked at it 15 - 23 y ago whenever, and thought
obvious scam - what fools

the revenoo ( hey dig the free-tee spelling!) [HMRC that is!] are moving towards GAAP

that isnt (well could be!) generally accepted accounting principles
but
general anti-avoidance principles - they have them in new zealand - twenty years behind the times in most things but not this, readers! -

the fact there is a delay is irrelevant ....

[Peter Pedant]

// were told the salary was an interest fee loan which would never have to be repaid//

yeah that was the one
loan which isnt a loan
oh lordy !
one guy 'saved' £23 000 for ten years

[Peter Pedant]

no £10 000 for 23 y