Loan charge review

4th September, 2019

Loan charge review

An update

We note with some relief that following a long campaign from LCAG and other sources, the Prime Minister has announced that the Loan Charge will be reviewed.

The statement was made in PMQ’s and as might be expected, detail is very much missing at this time. We await with anticipation the form and terms of reference of the review and hope that we will be able to contribute to its evidence gathering and conclusions.

The timing of the announcement of a review, will inevitably lead to questions around the need to disclose information for the loan charge and what will happen to any settlements still in progress.

The answer at the moment is that because there has been no formal postponement of the loan charge disclosure information and no formal announcement that all work on settlements will be postponed, we have to continue on the assumption that the law (on loan charge disclosure) and latest statement from HMRC on settlement, remain unchanged.

Settlements should continue to be progressed in line with deadlines indicated in HMRC correspondence.

For those not settling, Loan Charge disclosure should be made in line with legislation. If you are a client of ours you will have already been updated.

Similarly, if you are settling, this should be progressed in line with the deadlines indicated in HMRC correspondence. Again, for clients who have instructed us on this we will continue to progress matters on your behalf. We may choose to mention this review as part of the ongoing discussions here.

When we are in receipt of more clearer information, we will update this advice.