The government has launched its independent examination of loan costs, but was criticized by activists who called it “imposture”.
The loan fees have been put in place to make up a tax escape and recover anti -dated taxes, but have left many self -employed workers faced with significant invoices.
In a statement published Thursday, the Minister of the Treasury, James Murray, said that the examination would examine the obstacles which prevent those who owe money to “achieve resolution with HMRC and recommend means by which they might be encouraged to do so ”.
However, it will not reconsider the position of the government that the loan costs are fair.
This led the LOAN charge Action Group to reject the exam, calling it “imposture” and “total betrayal”.
“What the government has announced today is not a revision at all, because, surprisingly, it excludes a revision of loan costs,” said group founder Steve Packham.
He said the exam did not examine how the HMRC had set the loan costs or operated and promoted the tax evasion schemes.
In 1999, the Labor government at the time introduced IR 35, a tax law which aimed to classify many self -employed workers as employers, which means that they should pay national insurance.
Thousands of people then joined programs promoted by lawyers and accountants, allowing them to legally avoid paying national insurance.
This generally involved that the self -employed paid money to offshore companies, who lent them to them without expecting the loan to be reimbursed.
After the government has filled this gap, the Treasury used borrowing costs to ask the self -employed to pay anti -dated taxes.
The HMRC estimates that around 50,000 people are affected by loan costs.
Announcing a review of loan costs, the Minister of the Treasury, James Murray, said: “The government considers that it is fair that those who have not paid the right amount of income and insurance tax national are forced to resolve their business with the HMRC.
“Accepting the contrary would be contrary to the decisions of the courts and would be unfair to the vast majority of taxpayers who have never used these stratagems.”
However, he added that concerns existed concerning the costs, in particular the amount of certain payments and the question of whether people were able to pay “within a reasonable time”.
He said the exam would aim to “end the case for those concerned; to guarantee equity for all taxpayers; And to ensure that an appropriate support is in place for those subject to loan costs ”.
It will be led by Ray McCann, former president of the Charterd Institute of Taxation, which should make its report by summer.
Conservative deputy Greg Smith and co -president of the Multipartite Parliamentary Group on Load charges (APPG), said that the announcement of the revision was “a farce”.
“This is not the promised examination or the examination that is desperately needed and the Appg will continue to put pressure for a real investigation to be carried out on this scandal,” he said.
