Tax Avoidance and War Widows

(asked on 7th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the consistent application of the principle of retrospectivity in the cases of the (a) loan charge and (b) war widows' pension.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 12th February 2020

The Loan Charge is not retrospective as it is a new charge on disguised remuneration loan balances which were outstanding at 5 April 2019.

However, Sir Amyas Morse’s independent Review recommended that the Loan Charge should be applied to disguised remuneration loans which were entered into on 9 December 2010 or afterwards, as the law about the tax treatment of these loans was clear from this date. The Government accepted this recommendation.

It has been the policy of successive Governments that changes to public service pension and compensation schemes should not be applied retrospectively where benefits have already been awarded. The Government currently has no plans to reinstate war widows’ pensions with retrospective effect.

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