PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Tax Avoidance (21 June 2018)

The charge on disguised remuneration (DR) loans was announced at Budget 2016 and has been introduced to tackle the use of DR tax avoidance schemes. These schemes are contrived arrangements that pay loans in place of ordinary remuneration to avoid income tax and National Insurance contributions. The charge will apply to outstanding DR loan balances on 5 April 2019 to ensure scheme users pay their fair share of tax.

The Government published a consultation document on this policy on 10 August 2016. The Government received 338 written responses to the consultation, of which 260 were from individuals and 78 from organisations including businesses, and professional bodies. A list of the organisations which responded can be found at Annex A of the ‘Tackling disguised remuneration: Technical note and summary of responses document’. This can be found here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/574567/Tackling_disguised_remuneration_-_Technical_note_and_summary_of_responses.pdf

The charge on DR loans was introduced by Finance (no. 2) Act 2017, with supplementary provisions in Finance Act 2018. Representations were made by organisations and individuals as legislation passed through Parliament.