Section 16 - Further information on measures introduced to address stakeholder concerns
Published 23 April 2020
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-loan-charge-review-summary-of-evidence/section-16-further-information-on-measures-introduced-to-address-stakeholder-concerns
Closed enquiry new measure
HMRC will not apply the loan charge to a tax year where an enquiry was closed on the basis of fully disclosed information. This decision was made by HMRC’s Commissioners using their collection and management powers because it is right that the loan charge should not arise where an individual was directly told by HMRC that their affairs were correct, following full disclosure of their DR arrangements. This measure does not apply to employers.
To benefit from this, individuals need to have provided HMRC with enough information about their disguised remuneration use, so that the officer enquiring into their affairs should have known from the information available that the individual had used a disguised remuneration scheme. The individual might have provided this either on their tax return or as part of the enquiry.
Individuals who consider that they qualify for the closed enquiry concession should notify HMRC when reaching any settlement, or when returning their loan charge information in their tax return for 2018 to 2019. If settlement has already been agreed with HMRC, individuals who are in this position should contact HMRC, which will refund any relevant part of the settlement.
We are not able to provide an estimate of the numbers who will benefit and revenue foregone as we are not currently aware of any cases where this new measure may apply. We are not able to identify cases of this kind from our records unless an individual comes forward and provides us with evidence, which has not happened to date.
We will only be able to estimate how many customers are impacted and the revenue foregone once individuals have returned the loan charge in January 2020 and appropriate assurance has taken place.
Go to section 17: Current use of Disguised Remuneration Schemes.