Paul Baxendale-Walker ordered to cease schemes

[cojak]

Ooh! I missed this while I was on holiday!

[sadkingbilly]

like i said.

[northernladuk]

Just crazy reading up on him, even just on the wiki page on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Baxendale-Walker

I really can't make my mind up what I think of him. He lives in a different world. It appears he's Mr Golden Balls turning his hand to anything he wants and making a lot of money out of it but as you read on everything he touches turns to ratsh!t and loses every case he's had lodged against him, but he still seems to be living/working in high flying circles having a charmed life. Almost worthy of a film/documentary.

If every scheme he's come up with fails then I'd be very interested in to his personal tax situation. It must be just as questionable as all the schemes he comes up with.

[sadkingbilly]

sounds like a chum of donald and nigel

[ladymuck]

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/...se-tax-schemes

Tax avoidance schemer Paul Baxendale-Walker has been ordered by HMRC to stop promoting two tax avoidance schemes, or he faces penalties or prosecution.

HMRC has issued a stop notice to Baxendale-Walker, one of the UK’s most infamous tax avoidance scheme promoters, having masterminded the employee benefit trust (EBT) scheme and operated the Rangers scheme.

The Stop Notices applied to both of Baxendale-Walker’s schemes involve artificial arrangements, including the use of offshore trusts. Today’s announcement is a first for HMRC, since the tax authority hasn’t issued a Stop Notice to an individual before, opting instead to target companies.

Stop Notice 49 relates to a remuneration trust and Stop Notice 50 relates to an offshore trust scheme. Describing the latter scheme, HMRC said: “A scheme user makes a contribution to an offshore trust and claims the contribution as a deductible corporation tax or income tax expense.

“The money claimed to have been contributed to the trust is subsequently transferred back to the company’s director or back to the self-employed person, typically via another company. The director or self-employed person claims the funds received this way are held in a fiduciary capacity.”

Jonathan Smith, HMRC's director of counter avoidance, said: “The courts have already concluded that Mr Baxendale-Walker designed and sold multiple tax avoidance schemes that don't work as claimed, and now these Stop Notices send a clear message that we'll use every tool at our disposal to protect public finances from tax avoidance schemes.”

UK’s most notorious tax promoter

Baxendale-Walker has an ill-fated history with tax avoidance schemes. The struck-off solicitor turned pornographer has his fingerprints over some of the most notorious tax schemes.

As Ray McCann said in an article on AccountingWEB last year, “I am not sure that there is anyone who has left a larger trail of carnage in his wake than Baxendale-Walker with pretty much every client being left to meet their fate once HMRC had became aware of his schemes.”

Baxendale-Walker has been engaged in a dispute with HMRC over a £14m penalty. The case reached the upper tribunal in July 2023, after HMRC failed to impose the penalty for continued non-compliance with a paragraph 50 Schedule 36 notice.

However, the judge recognised Baxenadale-Walker’s failure to comply with the information notice, but concluded that the paragraph 50 penalty had no “reasonable prospect of success”. Bexandale-Walker’s appeal was allowed and the £14m penalty was struck out.

The impact of Baxendale-Walker

Meanwhile, his schemes have made regular appearances at the first tier tax tribunals. Most recently, a corporate remuneration trust scheme he promoted referred to as the ‘Instructions to Minerva introducers’ was discussed at an FTT: HMRC vs Asset House Piccadilly Limited.

According to a recent post from Dan Neidle, Baxendale was responsible for pushing the Minerva scheme to advisers in 2023, offering them a 35% cut of the fees for becoming ‘introducers’.

In December last year, Italian jockey Frankie Dettori was caught up in another Baxendale-Walker scheme. The failed arrangements were said to be similar to Northwood vs HMRC, with the scheme involving deductions claimed in relation to contributions to a ‘remuneration trust’.

It was found to be a “sham” and Detorri’s usage of the scheme was revealed after he attempted to have his name hidden from public view.

The most infamous of all was the Rangers EBT case. He was an adviser to Rangers and was behind the loan scheme structure. It culminated in bankruptcy for Rangers Football Club.

HMRC cracks down on promoters

The Stop Notice comes as HMRC continues to crack down on tax scheme promoters. On the day of the recent Spring Statement, HMRC released the ‘Closing in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance’ consultation, which discusses plans to give HMRC powers to disrupt promoters’ business models in order to reduce the tax gap.

The new powers include the introduction of a universal Stop Notice and promoter action notice, an expansion of the scope of criminal sanctions to take in failure to disclose avoidance schemes under the DOTAS legislation, unlimited fines and up to two years imprisonment.

HMRC highlighted the scale of tax avoidance in the consultation, noting that around £500m of the tax gap relates to marketed avoidance schemes. However, this has fallen from around £1.5bn in the financial year 2005-2006. The biggest contributor to this total is disguised remuneration schemes.

A new criminal offence for promoters who fail to comply with Stop Notices was introduced through legislation that received Royal Assent on 22 February 2024. Those handed a Stop Notice must immediately cease promoting the specified tax avoidance schemes.