Douglas Barrowman sold a possibly criminal, tax avoidance scheme using an Isle of Man company called Principal Contracts Ltd. The Isle of Man authorities say it failed to file accounts, paid unlawful dividends, & failed to pay £5m of Isle of Man VAT.

Guess what happened next? PCL sold tax avoidance schemes which replaced normal taxable employment income with supposedly non-taxable loans.

The schemes never worked, but HMRC failed to challenge them in the usual way. In a panic, the Government introduced a "loan charge" to tax the loans.

Ballpark flat tax numbers: a fiscally neutral income tax flat tax would be about 25% - i.e. 5% increase in basic rate, 15% cut in higher rate. So the average earner would pay about £1,200 more tax/year. Someone on £100k would pay £5k less. Someone on £200k, £30k less. Or if the idea is to eliminate the higher and top rate, so everyone is taxed at 20%, we'd need to cut c£100bn of spending. For context, the NHS costs £180bn; defence spending is £60bn.

Ian Clifford Stamp makes £500k/month by selling made-up "sovereign citizen" get rich quick schemes to vulnerable people.

Stamp doesn't like people pointing that out this is all pretend- so he's pretending to sue me for $1.5m. I say "pretending" because he's sent me something written in blue ink requiring that that, within 14 days, I agree to everything he says, deny everything he says and deny some of what he says. Nakedness is also involved.

Whatever this is, Stamp doesn't seem very good at it.

I often get legal threats. This one's a little different - it's printed on blue ink, babbles incomprehensibly about mail fraud, and was also served on Janet Yellen and Richard Hermer (UK attorney general). A quick thread about why this isn't funny.
The document is from Ian Clifford Stamp, who runs "Matrix Freedom". They sell get-rich-quick schemes that promise to eliminate debts/mortgages and "create currency". This email shows them selling £500,000 of "currency creation" for the low, low, price of £2,000.

New data on farms and inheritance tax: a third of farm estates over £1.5m aren’t farmers but wealthy people avoiding IHT by sinking money into farmland.

The Budget hits farmers too hard and tax avoiders too lightly. It needs to change. Detailed analysis and full proposal here, with technical input from farm tax specialists like @StuartMaggs.

Summary thread: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/11/24/how…

The mystery tax avoider's name will be revealed in three weeks. A quick thread, and update on our story from May. Full background, references and links here: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/05/08/mys…

The Budget employer national insurance increase will mostly end up being passed to employees in the form of lower wages and reduced employment. A thread on why I'm disappointed by the Budget, and why this chart makes me sad. A longer version of this thread here: , with links to references, sources, and the spreadsheet generating the charts. taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/11/21/the…

A horrible mess for some private school parents who paid fees in advance to try to avoid Labour's VAT hike. And it's entirely the fault of the private schools and their associations.

A quick thread on how to avoid VAT successfully, and how the schools didn't.. We warned back in May that private schools were encouraging parents to pay in advance to avoid Labour's VAT hike, but structuring these schemes *really badly*.

We said that, under usual VAT principles, there was a high risk these schemes would fail, and parents *would* end up paying the VAT. taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/05/09/pri…

The Country Land and Business Association says the new £1m cap on agricultural inheritance tax relief will "harm 70,000 farms". That's 1/3 of all farms.

What does the actual data show? Less than 500 farms/year will be pay more tax as a result of this change every year. Possibly as few as 100. Why 500? Because this table shows only 500 farm estates claimed agricultural property relief (APR) of more than £1m in 2022.

Lots of over-the-top coverage right now about the £1m cap on inheritance tax agricultural property relief (APR).

Quick thread: Background: if I'm a landlord with a portfolio of properties, or an investor with a portfolio of listed shares, when I die my estate pays 40% inheritance tax (IHT). Until now, APR meant that agricultural estates were completely exempt from IHT.

What is tax avoidance? How's it different from tax evasion? Why can't we make tax avoidance illegal?

I have an infographic and a thread: There's a *much* longer version of this thread here, with references and links to sources: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/26/wha…

New polling paints an interesting picture of the public's tax-raising priorities, and a depressing picture of the public's understanding of tax and spending.

I have no easy answers, but I do have some rather alarming charts. A longer version of this thread is here, with links to sources: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/26/the…

This chart is a scandal.

Teachers, doctors and others earning fairly ordinary salaries can face marginal tax rates of more than 60%, and sometimes approaching 80%.

Rachel Reeves should reform income tax. Thread: A longer version of this thread is here, with references and links to sources: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/17/ref…

Just updated the "tax longlist" - now 34 ways Rachel Reeves could raise £22bn.

I've tried to cover every serious proposal that's out there. Some I like. Some I hate. But this thread is *long*. The full article is here: , with footnotes, sources, references etc.taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/09/25/the…

If the Government is serious about delivering growth, we need tax reform. Cutting tax or raising tax is an argument for another day. This post, and more in the next few days, are about making the tax system better. Today: corporation tax reform. An expanded version of this thread is here, with links and references: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/14/how…

The Daily Mail just won the right to say Douglas Barrowman has "cocktail-sausage fingers".

And it won the right to say his actions ruined thousands of lives, led to two suicides, and that he lied about his ties to a likely fraudulent tax scheme. Thread. The full story is set out in detail here, with references and links to sources. taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/01/18/bar…

New evidence: the Post Office deliberately designed its compensation scheme to deter postmasters from applying, and minimise the compensation they could claim.

Thread: (Full article here with references and links )taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/11/new…

Which MP receives the most donations? Who takes the most foreign trips? We've an interactive map that lets you explore all this and more.

(100,000 people tried out the map when we launched it a week ago; if you missed it, do take a look) You can jump straight to the map here, or read on for examples of how to use it:

We very much welcome feedback and thoughts for improvement.taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/09/24/map…

The Post Office is pushing postmasters to accept £75,000 compensation without legal advice. The Government needs to act quickly to fix this.

Thread: Our article on this, with copies of Post Office correspondence is here: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/01/the…

Just published the "tax longlist" - 29 ways Rachel Reeves could raise £22bn.

I've tried to cover every serious proposal that's out there. This thread will be *long*. The full article is here: , with footnotes, sources, references etc.taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/09/25/the…

Which MP is the highest earner? Who receives the highest donations? Who takes the most foreign trips? We've just launched an interactive map that lets you explore all this and more. You can jump straight to the map here, or read on for examples of how to use it: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/09/24/map…