MPs have warned the
attitude of HMRC towards its controversial loan
charge was "wreaking havoc" on taxpayers, amid claims of homelessness,
deaths, and other hardships allegedly caused by its demands.
The
Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group published its latest survey
report November 5 in which more than 2,000 people believed
to be facing the loan charge detailed how it, and HMRC's pursuit
of its payment, had impacted their lives.
According to the
survey, carried out between October 23 and October 28, one in six
respondents are yet to receive settlement figures from HMRC detailing
how much is owed, and a third have still not been formally notified of
the charge by the taxman.
When approached by
FTAdviser HMRC
maintained more than 99 per cent of "customers" who had provided the
relevant information by the April 2019 deadline had now received
settlement calculations, as of August 31.
The MPs' report found
more than 60 families were believed to have lost their homes as a result
of the loan charge and two respondents reported they had been made
homeless.
Further respondents said they had "seriously
considered" suicide facing the charge and the parliamentary group also
received reports of alleged miscarriages due to the stress of the
situation.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group said much of the
sentiment expressed in its most recent findings was similar to that
published in its March survey - but where previous responses had focused
on the legislation itself as the cause of distress, resentment was now
growing towards HMRC's behaviour "wreaking havoc on taxpayers' lives".
The
report said:
"In addition to HMRC’s inadequate ‘service’ towards
taxpayers, participants have continued to emphasise that they are
fearful, uncertain and this is now giving rise to a growing sense of
anger at the perceived unjust manner in which HMRC is treating them.
The number of those participants who have claimed
bankruptcy remains small. We can speculate that increased levels of
bankruptcy are more likely to occur after taxpayers have signed
settlement agreements.
Nevertheless, 94 per cent of participants remain in a perpetual state of limbo not knowing what the future holds."
Outside of the specific questions included in the survey, respondents
were invited to share details of their experiences of living with the
loan charge.
These accounts included claims of abortions to "
spare the unborn child from living with stress and threat of poverty".
Irrespective of the arguments about whether the loan charge is a retrospective tax or not, quite clearly a situation whereby people are committing suicide and having abortions because of a tax bill is wrong on every level.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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