Ministerial announcements on 13 January 2009 and 1 April 2009 gave notice of legislation that will be included in Finance Bill 2009 that will close down artificial and aggressive personal tax avoidance schemes. These schemes seek to abuse tax reliefs available for employment-related liabilities and losses by way of entering into employment arrangements where such liabilities or losses are triggered by deliberate acts or omissions. The details of the arrangements mean the users will not in fact incur any real liabilities or losses.
The legislation will be effective from 12 January 2009 in relation to both announcements and HM Revenue & Customs are working to identify all users of the schemes to collect all tax that users of the scheme intended to avoid. The legislation will have no impact on those using the reliefs who are not attempting to avoid tax.
