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The Government released on 20 December 2019 a copy of the loan charge independent review report, containing some considerable changes to the loan charge.

The review, led by Sir Amyas Morse, was commissioned to look at the impact of the charge, which was introduced to tackle what the Treasury described as ‘disguised remuneration schemes’.

For a brief history of the loan charge, see the Loan charge guidance note and ‘Morse Code’ by David Graham in Taxation, 16 January 2020, 11.

The review, the Government response and the initial guidance can be found on GOV.UK.

Some of the fundamental amendments are listed below:

1. •

   the loan charge will now only apply to outstanding loans made on, or after 9 December 2010, as opposed to any from 1999 onwards

2. •

   the loan charge will not apply to outstanding loans made in any tax years before 6 April 2016 where the avoidance scheme use was fully disclosed to HMRC and HMRC did not take any action (see below for the meaning of ‘fully disclosed’)

3. •

   affected