Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2019 to Question 243573, how many of the over 60 schemes that have been disclosed under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme involve trusts.
The Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme (DOTAS) regime generally does not expressly require disclosers to tell HMRC whether a scheme involves a trust. HMRC review all disclosures under DOTAS and challenges schemes as appropriate as part of its risk based compliance strategy.
Analysis at the point of disclosure indicates that around a third of the avoidance schemes disclosed under DOTAS rules since 2014 include trusts. However, the use of a trust may not be a material component of the scheme or arrangements being disclosed under DOTAS, the exact use of a trust will in many cases only become clear on further investigation.