Treasury financial secretary assures MPs loan charge is not retrospective

The disguised remuneration legislation which applies next April ‘is not retrospective’ the financial secretary to the Treasury told the House of Commons.

Mel Stride was responding to Peter Aldous (Conservative) who said the retrospective nature of the 2019 loan charge could bankrupt thousands of people. Mr Aldous asked the government to revise the legislation so that the charge applied only ‘to disguised remuneration loans made after the passing of the F (No 2) A 2017’.

Mr Stride refused telling MPs on 3 July: ‘The activities and arrangements entered into by those who are in scope of this measure were not legal when they were entered into even though they may have been entered into in the past. The loan charge is there not to apply penalties for that behaviour but to ensure that those individuals pay the right amount of tax.’

Graham Webber director of...