Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the compatibility of the issuing of section 684 notices by HMRC with the recommendations of the independent loan charge review led by Sir Amyas Morse.

The Loan Charge is targeted at contrived tax avoidance schemes that sought to avoid Income Tax and National Insurance contributions by paying users their income in the form of loans.

In his independent review, Lord Morse recommended that the Loan Charge no longer apply to loans made before 9 December 2010. However, Lord Morse said “HMRC should continue being able to settle and investigate cases prior to this point under their normal powers where they have appropriate grounds, and a legal basis, to do so”. The government accepted this recommendation. In line with this recommendation, HMRC is still seeking to recover the tax due where it had taken the necessary steps in the past to give it the legal basis to do so.

In May 2022, the Court of Appeal said that HMRC could consider using certain provisions in the PAYE system (referred to as ‘section 684(7A)(b)’) to collect tax directly from the individual who received income through a DR scheme. HMRC using these provisions where appropriate is in line with Lord Morse’s recommendation.