Loan Charge Reclaim

[cojak]

Which means the figures they will be seeking will be in the millions and that will be more than most clients will be able to pay.

It's really no different to an tax avoidance version of umbrella reclaim. And at least with umbrella reclaim I eventually saw some moral justification to it (agencies need to provide KIDs. If you don't see an accurate KID that's reason enough to argue that the deductions weren't accurately explained).

I suspect that agencies and clients involved in that sort of litigation won’t forget as quickly as they have done in the past.

[eek]

From the FAQs on their website:

"Assuming we are able to fit your claim into a group of similar claims, we will seek to recover any monies that your agency should have deducted pursuant to s44 Income Tax Earnings and Pensions Act 2003."

Also:

"Agencies that had a duty to deduct PAYE for you but failed to do so, will be liable to meet a claim. It may be that your ultimate client can be included as a defendant."

So, they'll only pursue a claim if they get a group who were with the same agency (or client). They don't say how big the group would have to be but I imagine it would have to be fairly large for it to be worth the cost/risk of litigation.

They may have to get many hundreds, or even thousands, to sign up to find a big enough group.

Which means the figures they will be seeking will be in the millions and that will be more than most clients will be able to pay.

It's really no different to an tax avoidance version of umbrella reclaim. And at least with umbrella reclaim I eventually saw some moral justification to it (agencies need to provide KIDs. If you don't see an accurate KID that's reason enough to argue that the deductions weren't accurately explained).

[DealorNoDeal]

From the FAQs on their website:

"Assuming we are able to fit your claim into a group of similar claims, we will seek to recover any monies that your agency should have deducted pursuant to s44 Income Tax Earnings and Pensions Act 2003."

Also:

"Agencies that had a duty to deduct PAYE for you but failed to do so, will be liable to meet a claim. It may be that your ultimate client can be included as a defendant."

So, they'll only pursue a claim if they get a group who were with the same agency (or client). They don't say how big the group would have to be but I imagine it would have to be fairly large for it to be worth the cost/risk of litigation.

They may have to get many hundreds, or even thousands, to sign up to find a big enough group.

[eek]

To be clear the terms £240 upfront and a 25% cut or £0 and a 40% cut.

How to trash your reputation with agents and your clients and make sure that you never work for them again.

You can see who will win with this 'plan' and it's not you...

This is actual a consequence of the various court cases that are now hitting the court of appeal - which just might give an opening.

I would add 2 things here:-

1) it would be great for umbrella workers if agency's / end clients were responsible for tax paid but I suspect it would kill outside IR35 contracting dead.

2) your typical agency just wants to earn money. As anyone who has been around the industry more than a few weeks will know agency's have the memory of a goldfish - if they can make money off you next week that's all that matters.

[cojak]

How to trash your reputation with agents and your clients and make sure that you never work for them again.

You can see who will win with this 'plan' and it's not you...

[BenDover]

£240

Now read it correctly from "There is an alternative", I will soon know after I have contacted them tomorrow.......if there is free money knocking around I am in...lol

[GregRickshaw]

It is on a 'No win no fee' basis, what have you to lose? Where is the scam in that? They must be pretty confident to offer such a scheme, is it only for Castlemaine clients or open to everyone as I will give it a go if it costs me nothing :-)

£240

[BenDover]

It is on a 'No win no fee' basis, what have you to lose? Where is the scam in that? They must be pretty confident to offer such a scheme, is it only for Castlemaine clients or open to everyone as I will give it a go if it costs me nothing :-)

[DealorNoDeal]

Can you imagine the cost of pursuing individual claims against loads of different agencies and/or clients.

Also, aren't they missing something?

It's over 10 years since I did any contracting but even back then agencies wouldn't do business with an IoM outfit. So I'm guessing most of these schemes must have had a UK intermediary which was pretending to be some form of brolly. Surely, if anyone is liable it would be these intermediaries, which will have long since disappeared?

If LCR weren't doing this on a no-win/no-fee basis, I'd say it was a scam. Even so, it sounds like pie in the sky to me.

[Fred Bloggs]

I hear very loud barrel scraping noises.

[dammit chloe]

After 14 years of nothing I got an email today about Loan Charge Reclaim from Castlemaine, the accounts who ran my scheme up until I left in 2005.

This presumable is yet another scam but how are they working it. Are they seriously thinking they can claim money from any of the client I worked for through them? Surely, as they ran the scheme, it is a claim against themselves that should be happening.

This is their pitch.

We trust this email finds you well.

Here at Castlemaine Associates, we have been working tirelessly over the past 4 years to find a resolution for Contractors affected by the Loan Charge Legislation.

As you know from previous communications, we believe this piece of legislation not only goes fundamentally against all tax principles, it is also draconian, totally unjust and utterly unfair. The fact is that prior to 2017, loan arrangements worked in principle and HMRC was unable to defeat these arrangements via the normal channels, so they resorted to underhand measures by bringing in retrospective legislation.

Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to defeat the Loan Charge per se, but we have identified in conjunction with both Tax and Employment QC’s, rights for contractors to reclaim both PAYE and Holiday entitlement from the Agencies and/or Clients that you contracted through. With this in mind I would like to introduce our partners, Loan Charge Reclaim.

So how does this all work?

As you will undoubtedly be aware, HMRC claim that these loans now fall within the scope of the disguised remuneration rules i.e., Part 7A ITEPA 2003 and as such, payments received via these loan mechanisms are treated as income, and taxed accordingly in the hands of the recipient, if they remained outstanding on 5th April 2019.

Loan Charge Reclaim have taken it back a stage and will be pursuing the Agency and/or Client under the Law of Tort for their failure under Section 44 ITEPA 2003 (known as the Agency Rules). Agencies are regarded as the employer/payer for the purposes of these rules and accordingly, under those rules, they were liable to deduct (but did not) Income Tax and Class 1 NIC’s.

The fact is HMRC should have made a direction under regulation 72(5) or 81(4) of the PAYE regulations on the Agency and they also failed in their duty, which makes them as culpable as the Agency.

Under normal circumstances the Law of Tort allows a claim to be brought within 3 years of you finding out you have one and allows a claimant to go back 6 years from that date. However, under certain circumstances, this can be extended to 15 years where it can be shown and proven the person was “Wilfully Neglect or Negligent”. We believe we are able to plead both Wilful Neglect and indeed Negligence and that is supported by QC’s opinions.

So how much is this going to cost me?

Loan Charge Reclaim ask you to pay a low one-off registration fee of £240 (including VAT) when you sign up. This fee covers the administration phase. If they consider you have a valid claim, which we expect to be the case, they will offer you a no win/no fee damages-based agreement under which they would be paid a success fee of 25% plus VAT based on all amounts of money recovered on your behalf. There is an alternative, by which you may choose not to pay the registration fee and a success fee of 40% plus VAT will be deducted.

How can you be sure of a successful outcome – when others have failed?

As stated previously LCR has opinions from both Employment and Tax QC’s, and they believe there is an extremely high chance of success. That is why LCR are prepared to accept this on a no win/no fee basis which in essence means if this fails, they don’t get paid.

We hope that this is a welcomed update and encourage you to peruse the company’s details below, their website has an FAQ section that should answer most of your immediate questions.



Website: wwwdotloanchargedotcom
Telephone number: 08000 996 995