DOUG Barrowman, the husband of Tory peer Michelle Mone, faces a hefty tax bill after his firm failed to provide legally-required information to HMRC.
AML Tax (UK), a tax avoidance firm and part of Barrowman’s Isle of Man-based Knox group, was fined in an Upper Tribunal case and now must pay a £3.3 million tax bill.
Back in 2019, the firm was struck off the Companies House register for not filing accounts. AML Tax supported a loan-based tax avoidance scheme which left thousands of the contractors it recruited with large bills to pay to HMRC.
READ MORE: Scotland loses billions to tax evasion every year, figures show
It was found by the court that the firm had for years “aggressively promoted tax avoidance schemes” and was subsequently fined £150,000 for not giving HMRC information it required.
Barrowman’s firm is now required to give HMRC the relevant information to find out how much tax is owed. It is estimated that the bill could be in excess of £3m. That would be on top of previous penalties issued by HMRC, which total around £9000.
Following these fines, HMRC will investigate AML’s financial records to calculate what the firm owes in corporation tax for 2014 and 2015.
On AML’s actions, the Upper Tribunal case ruling said: “The £60,000 of profits declared by AML in truth tells us little about AML’s business activities. The opaque recharge mechanism, backed up by no reliable detail or documentation as to AML’s business, means that we cannot treat it as a relevant figure.
“On all the evidence which we have summarised above, and on the findings of fact we have made, we have formed the view that AML did contribute, to some degree, to the design and implementation of the schemes sold by the group other than merely the annuity planning scheme.
“On that basis, if AML had been rewarded on an arm’s length basis, then it would have potentially been taxable on an appropriate proportion of the £20m which was declared as taxable in the Isle of Man.”
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