Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what criteria HM Revenue and Customs use to decide whether individual Loan Charge settlement discussions can continue past the 30 September settlement deadline.

At the time of the independent review of the Loan Charge, about 12,000 employers and individuals had the opportunity to avoid the Loan Charge by concluding settlements, having provided all the relevant information to HMRC by 5 April 2019. Early indications are that as at 2 October about 60 percent of these taxpayers have either settled, informed HMRC that they had instead decided to report and pay the Loan Charge, or have been taken out of scope of the Loan Charge following the Government’s changes in response to the independent review.

HMRC are continuing settlement discussions with a relatively small number of taxpayers who were prevented from meeting the 30 September deadline by exceptional circumstances beyond their control, such as recent hospitalisation. HMRC’s criteria for continuing settlement discussions beyond the 30 September deadline are:

• The taxpayer had actively engaged in the settlement process until the occurrence of a factor, and
• The factor is entirely outside the control of the taxpayer, and
• The factor prevented the taxpayer from settling by 30 September, and
• Absent the factor, the taxpayer would have been able to settle by 30 September, and
• The taxpayer will be able, and agrees, to settle within a defined period of no more than 3 months after the 30 September.

HMRC do not hold aggregate data on when individual taxpayers were issued with settlement offers.