Loan Scheme - Trusts recalling loans?

[loanchargehurt]

Isnt this the case that they just want to shut them down. IHT may come into the picture which could now be big.
I settled way back but CLSO2 took off the IHT on settlement. they should have really enforced the shutdown of everything at that time IMO

I agree that it is most likely that the Trustees just wants to close down the Trust. All the other posts are winding him up and seeing problems that may not be there.

CLS02 was in early 2015, after HMRC had lost in the UTT in July 2014 and at the time there was no case law in HMRC's favour. There was no IHT in relation to CLS02 and no real hint that HMRC considered it applicable. After their proposal to introduce the Loan Charge HMRC made the settlement terms more penal, including a new intervention by the IHT department of HMRC who wanted their department to get credit for some of the cash about to be collected. Almost 10 years later, after numerous people had settled on these new harsher settlement terms under threat of the even more penal loan charge, the ex-CIOT President then proposes better terms for those who didn't settle. You couldn't make it up.
HMRC granted leave to appeal Rangers tax case decision - BBC News

[stillpestered]

The real issue now is whether when waiving/writing off these loans will trigger an IHT charge. I see the latest 2026 deal has some exceptions to paying it - if true that's wholly unfair on people who settled earlier in good faith. ie 2015

Some of these are property trusts and some are S86 Trusts. I guess the question is can you leave them on the books and not waive them if it triggers an IHT charge?
If it does trigger an IHT charge then I very much doubt they would pay it.

[woody1]

Another "very well informed" poster signing up this month, both of them seeming to explain away the actions of scheme promoters/trustees.

stillpestered, loanchargehurt

Any connection I wonder? One for our resident Detective Inspector WTFH perhaps?

[sadkingbilly]

call them out and you get threatened with a ban.
or is it just me?

[stillpestered]

Another "very well informed" poster signing up this month, both of them seeming to explain away the actions of scheme promoters/trustees.

stillpestered, loanchargehurt

Any connection I wonder? One for our resident Detective Inspector WTFH perhaps?

Sadly not. I have people on here who can vouch for me. I too got a letter from Equiom on Saturday. I thought all this mess was behind me. The original poster was in our settlement group back in 2015. I got hit for over 50k back then and it financially killed me. Now if I have 4 years worth off loans to write off with a potential IHT bill on each, I've come back to see if others are getting the same letter. It appears so.

I can understand your viligance but I have no skin in the game. We came across lots of snake oil salesman back then and it appears that's continued ever since. I only know a bit more as GPT wasn't around in 2015 when we settled and IHT is very complicated.

my previous account was bluemonkey71

[LadyPenelope]

Thanks both - have spent some time going through the West 28th thread - it's somewhat similar, but different enough that I will post details here for others

Unlike West 28th, this request appears to be coming from the Trustees themselves - Marra Solutions - (or the Trustee company that managed the EBT - Equiom) - they are offering 3 options
1. repay the loan - even though that would be detrimental to the "Beneficiary" - which i thought was in conflict with the Trustee's obligations (which is where it smelled a bit dodge - so i repay the loan, does that mean I am then eligible for a (taxable) Trust distribution?)
2. provide HMRC settlement details - once confirmed they will then waive the loan (with the usual caveats around IHT etc)
3. enter settlement discussions with HMRC
(and 4. if you do nothing they are threatening legal proceedings to recall the loan)

It "feels" like they want to close out the trust, but HMRC are saying you have outstanding tax issues.. or something along those lines. I am going to try and speak to the trustees to get more details and will post back here once I have.

Hi, I was in the schemes from 2004 - 2006 and also settled with HMRC (back in 2013).

IIRC I went for Option 2 - had to prove I settled with HMRC. There was IHT also that I settled. On doing this, you can request a letter from Equiom/Marra confirming that the loans have been 'forgiven'. They charge a small fee (mine was £500) but this was 10 years ago.

I must admit that seeing this thread brought back all the dread of dealing with this stuff, and I have just checked that I still have copies of the write-off letters to cover myself in case they write to me. I've not had anything from them since the confirmation that they've forgiven the loans.

Quite possibly they really do need to close out the trust as suggested upthread. As far as these schemes are concerned, Eqiom/Marra are (relatively) professional, or they were 10 years ago.

I'm not very active on this board having retired from contracting but you can presumably see I've been on CUK for >10 years?

Edit: My write-off letter from Marra is dated April 2016.

[woody1]

Sadly not. I have people on here who can vouch for me. I too got a letter from Equiom on Saturday. I thought all this mess was behind me. The original poster was in our settlement group back in 2015. I got hit for over 50k back then and it financially killed me. Now if I have 4 years worth off loans to write off with a potential IHT bill on each, I've come back to see if others are getting the same letter. It appears so.

I can understand your viligance but I have no skin in the game. We came across lots of snake oil salesman back then and it appears that's continued ever since. I only know a bit more as GPT wasn't around in 2015 when we settled and IHT is very complicated.

In which case, please accept my apologies.

Doesn't the £325k nil-rate threshold apply?

[stillpestered]

I don't believe so. 0.25% charge per quarter for the first 10 years then it drops to 0.2% per quarter. It's on the Gov IHT form.

The main kicker is what type of trust it was as some were property trusts and others "satisfied S86 Inheritance Tax Act 1984"

Although seeing Penelope's post which was the same as mine that was a property trust in 05/06 and 06/07, she got hit with IHT when it was written off.

I suspect I'll need an advisor again to explain.

[woody1]

Which begs an obvious question. Why on earth did some scheme promoters choose a type of trust which could be liable for IHT, when they could have chosen a different type, like other schemes, where this could never have arisen?

The scumbags behind these schemes have a lot to answer for.

[stillpestered]

Tell me about it, a good hiding or jail time at the bare minimum. Also the settlement should have been full and final back then with loan write offs but the CLSO2 took off IHT as there was no liability at that time.
HMRC were just interested in tax/interest and not the whole wipe down with the trusts.