Loan Charge: Sir Amyas Morse Report Recommendations

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Written Statements

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Jesse Norman)]

The loan charge was announced at Budget 2016 to tackle disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes, which paid income in the form of loans that were not taxed or subject to national insurance contributions.

In September 2019, the Government asked the former Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir Amyas Morse to lead an independent review of the loan charge policy and its implementation. Sir Amyas Morse presented his conclusions in a report published in December 2019 and made 20 recommendations for change. In response the Government accepted all but one of the recommendations (HCWS14).

The Government accepted Sir Amyas’s recommendation that HMRC should report to Parliament on their implementation of the loan charge once the changes had been implemented and before the end of 2020.

HMRC have today published their report setting out the actions they have taken to deliver the recommendations: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-loan-charge-review-hmrc-report-on-implementation.

This has been published together with their review of HMRC’s future policy on interest rates: https://www.gov. uk/government/publications/interest-rate-review.

A copy of the report has been shared with the Treasury Committee, Public Accounts Committee and Lords Economic Affairs Committee. The report will also be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.

[HCWS621]