IQ Consultants, Felicitas Solutions, ECS Trustees - loan repayment demands

[bigalig2003]

Gladstone Solicitors & Felicitas

Received letter from Gladstone re felicitas re payment of loans OR ELSE!

I may be naive here but IQ Contracts via Darwin have created this mess - my salary was paid directly to Darwin who then paid it back as a loan - how the hell can I owe money on my salary - I also paid tax and NI on this and arranged with HMRC to pay back what they thought I owed - so I did.

Now these scum are saying I owe them how on earth? I will be contesting this and writing back to challenge them.

[bigalig2003]

Count Me In

Hi all,

I have literally just joined but have been reading these posts since yesterday when I received my letter.. Also dated 30th Jan, and wanting payment to be made by the 12th Feb!! Its Sick!!
But also strange how its all come about on the same week and so close to the HMRC deadline for IR35, I wonder if they were being pursued from HMRC and tried to offset the debt back onto us..

Considering that the money comes from us in the first place, paid to those so called Umbrella Companies with a 15% cut for them providing a services which we are getting hit on by HMRC anyway.. And now they have the nerve to try and demand interest on a loan that, was our money in the first place and HMRC consider it as taxable income.!!!

Not only have we got the worry about future contract work and IR35, and the prospect of leaving our Ltd companies to go back to 'Umbrella', we have this!

I am liking what you are all discussing and from where I was wondering last night what is the point of all this when we are all trying to have lives and move on, there might be some hope..

I called my accountant and sent them my letter, they have a number of contractors on their books and are investigating this..

MattWills78 - I'm near London so I will also think about contacting Freeths.

I'm curious what John Davies is the director for Gladstones had to say...
Has anyone contacted Felicitas Solutions Shareholders Maurice Hazell & Adrian Sacco?

I'm definitely up for joining forces and getting one firm to dispute this..
Prob not wise to ignore the letters.

I received my letter 6th Feb - what a surprise! Agree with you strength in numbers and also agree it was our money in the first place! what a nerve!

[78paul]

Paul, Felicitas doesn't operate from 2A Lord Street. A quick google search will tell you that. opencorporatesdotcom/companies/im/131081C

At some stage in your past, you and everyone else, will have signed a loan agreement. You'll need to get your copy out and check its terms etc to properly form an opinion.

Then you'll need to check and see the underlying legal arrangements by which your loan was transferred from the original "lender" to the people now claiming repayment. If this all checks out, then you're not dealing with scammers (at least in the usual sense). Just because HMRC are treating the payments as income, doesn't automatically mean that the loan agreement is invalid. There's loads of threads on this in this part of the forum and what your experiencing isn't new. Pull up a chair and use the forum search facility to read about the others.

Hi,
True, my error on the address.. And I will look into my contracts and see what was signed or not.
So, potentially they could have a right to take all the money we earned over those months or years, and was paid into them which they took a percentage on prior to 'paying us' and even lead us into investigations with HMRC over Loan Remuneration charges and yet they still could potentially get all that money back because it has been classified as a loan?
I might as well have not worked for a few years..

Its not right.. And if its loans, then why are we getting taxed on this as income.

[hcr3001]

Hi,
True, my error on the address.. And I will look into my contracts and see what was signed or not.
So, potentially they could have a right to take all the money we earned over those months or years, and was paid into them which they took a percentage on prior to 'paying us' and even lead us into investigations with HMRC over Loan Remuneration charges and yet they still could potentially get all that money back because it has been classified as a loan?
I might as well have not worked for a few years..

Its not right.. And if its loans, then why are we getting taxed on this as income.

Hi, I'm concerned that if I write a dispute email to Gladstone it will not hold enough weight, so are other people sending a dispute letter via their solicitor?

[SouthKD]

Another branch of the greedy Darwin money tree

I too recieved this letter.
I settled all my outstanding tax with HMRC. I called them today and was told they can not help or advise me as I have settled my tax affairs with them. I explained that if the loans are 'repayable', surely I should get my money back from HMRC. I could almost hear him smiling!

I have been advised to sned a dispute to buy time and seek legal advice.

I'd gladly join forces if anyone wishes to do so.

Darwin, IQ and whoever else had this planned from the start. Such a disgrace that the government will just let them get away with it as they got their £1.3b from us

[redman9999red]

Yes I have received Gladstone Solicitors demand for a loan related to Garraway

Hello,

I have today received a letter out of the blue from Gladstones solicitors who are writing on behalf of Felicitas Solutions. Felicitas Solutions have demanded payment of interest for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019 on an outstanding loan relating to Garraway Ltd.

The letters details several loans, amounting to a very large sum of money. I did in the past use Garraway and settled with HMRC years ago. The amount lent and hence tax paid was far less than the amounts being requested Have Garraway really sold on loans? Can payments be demanded if they have? Is there a way to find out the original details of a loan, e.g. total amount, interest etc.?

I can see that some people have received a similar letter relating to the K2 scheme. Has anyone received a similar demands from Gladstones Solicitors for a loan relating to Garraway?

-a bit shocked-

Yes I have received Gladstone Solicitors demand for a loan related to Garraway

[78paul]

Hi, I'm concerned that if I write a dispute email to Gladstone it will not hold enough weight, so are other people sending a dispute letter via their solicitor?

Hi,
I don't know what to suggest really... I feel sick tbh..
For years I have been trying to get myself back on my feet and sorting out this mess with HMRC, a week away from buying a house and now this...

As some other earlier posts said - its specialist work and not all solicitors will be familiar with this. And they will be expensive! Although even that might be cheaper than these apparent debts.
And how is it guaranteed that even if you were to pay them that amount, it is then settled 100% and they will write the rest off.. Considering you paid them that money in the first place.

I would think that they still need to respect any dispute, even if it is from you.

[Trust Punisher]

Hi TP.

I spoke to Michal Perry (a really helpful accountant with significant experience in these matters) this morning, in his view:

- dispute or ignore it
- Felicitas have bought bad debt and are now employing Gladstones (Ambulance Chasers) to scare people into paying
- unlikely to go to court and, if it did, they are highly unlikely to be successful as they would have to prove it was a loan
- HMRC have already proven it’s income (disguised remuneration, not a loan) according to UK Law so have taken payment for the owed tax value as income tax
- may still potentially be a future issue with HMRC for inheritance tax (if you were in an EBT scheme) but no action required on that unless HMRC contact you about it - in which case he is arranging a group response so cost to contest would be minimal.

I also just spoke to Freeths who are fantastic. They echoed the points above and suggested I just dispute it. They do not believe they have a legal basis on which to claim payment of interest or capital given I can evidence the company that paid me the income (IQ Contracts LTD / disguised remuneration) have in fact already received the funds from the company I contracted for in return for the work I delivered - so they are not out of pocket and have done nothing that would suggest I have a debt to them.

They advised just to respond disputing it and stating why you believe no debt is owed.

Additionally even if it were a legitimate debt, by law Gladstone’s should be giving individuals more than 7 days to make the payment - on that basis (and for how they are acting / operating in general) I am reporting them to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

I am also reporting Gladstone’s & Felicitas to the Financial Conduct Authority and to the Serious Fraud Office - suggest your guys do the same.

Anyone else had legal advise on the situation yet?

Best,

Matt

Matt thanks for the update. I too was thinking the same, ie....dispute, asking various questions and contact the FCA and Police/Fraud Office - as i have nothing to hide and complied with HMRC/rulings....But will also take your suggestion about reporting Gladstone to the SRA.

cheers
TP

[webberg]

WTT statement

WTT Statement on IQ Consultants, IQ Contracts, Garraway Ltd, Darwin and Sanzar.
We have become aware that the loans that claim to emanate from the above schemes from late 2012 onwards have apparently passed into the hands of Felicitas Solutions Ltd. As a result many users of the above arrangements have received letters from Gladstones Solicitors (“Gladstones”) of Knutsford acting on behalf of Felicitas Solutions Ltd (“Felicitas”) of Ramsay Isle of Man.

The letter from Gladstones and Felicitas offers no proof that the rights claimed actually exist. It is the opinion of WTT that all recipients of these letters conduct a thorough amount of due diligence as to the bona fides of the claimed transactions. This can be raised with Felicitas directly. Their address is Felicitas Solutions Ltd, 8 Auckland Terrace, Parliament St, Ramsay, Isle of Man, IM8 1AF. Their email is [email protected] More information on the company can be found here Online Services - Company Summary

Felicitas also states that they are registered with the Isle of Man Office of Fair Trading. The website of that organisation is here Isle of Man Government - Isle of Man Office of Fair Trading and we suggest that they would be an impartial body from who to seek advice if you consider that necessary.

WTT is of the view that unless you have agreed a formal settlement with HMRC under the terms of the announcement made in November 2017 (CLSO 2), then a write off of the alleged loan may be a taxable event at the time of the write off. We, therefore, strongly urge you to take appropriate professional advice as to whether tax may be due in the event of a write off.

WTT is undertaking work on behalf of those clients who used the above arrangements and will be responding directly on their behalf and working with the relevant IOM authorities. For obvious reasons we are unable to share the full details here. If you wish to enquire into these actions and/or join that action, please contact us on [email protected] alternatively we recommend you take appropriate professional advice before making any payments or indeed liaising with Gladstones.

[xtos]

Hi,
I don't know what to suggest really... I feel sick tbh..
For years I have been trying to get myself back on my feet and sorting out this mess with HMRC, a week away from buying a house and now this...

As some other earlier posts said - its specialist work and not all solicitors will be familiar with this. And they will be expensive! Although even that might be cheaper than these apparent debts.
And how is it guaranteed that even if you were to pay them that amount, it is then settled 100% and they will write the rest off.. Considering you paid them that money in the first place.

I would think that they still need to respect any dispute, even if it is from you.

First post here, got same letter, to me it sounds like the scammers fraudsters with whom we sadly engaged with are back with another scam, mass email to all schemes users and see how much they can milk.
Of course i'm ignoring this letter ...next letter will be more menacing, threats of debt collector etc, parking ticket chasing tactics which of course i will ignore...take me to court about loans which HMRC views as income, yes take me on and the thousands of victims of the scammers fraudsters scheme (they stole income from us and HMRC).

If i pay any money it's to HMRC and only HMRC.