Billionaires with UK tax obligations are pushing back against sweeping requests for information from authorities seeking to map out their wealth and financial structures.
Letters sent by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs seeking in-depth information on assets, investments and financial structures are raising concerns over the legality of the requests and cost of compliance, according to tax and other advisers to the wealthy.
HMRC sent letters to all billionaires with a UK tax footprint in the summer, appointing each a so-called customer compliance manager. Last year, a cross-party Parliamentary committee had found the tax authority had an incomplete grasp of billionaires’ financial affairs. In short, they did not know ow many billionaires paid tax in the UK.
HMRC has also revised of its definition of UK billionaires to include people using offshore structures or property, rather than just those who file a UK tax return.
The letters, extracts of which were seen by Bloomberg Tax, reveal HMRC wants to build a comprehensive picture of billionaires’ financial lives – from business interests and investments to wider structures holding their wealth. HMRC has also reached out to seek meetings with some billionaires before they file their tax returns.
The requests risk stoking further tensions with the UK’s billionaires at a sensitive time after a slew of recent tax hikes and policy changes prompted big name investors to leave for overseas. Most recently hedge fund manager Chris Rokos, one of the UK’s biggest tax payers, announced he was departing for Greece.
HMRC did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Alexander Gurko, Russian-born British billionaire financial trader and founder of XTC Markets, took to LinkedIn after receiving his letter, writing: “My allocated Tax Compliance Mandarin is already in touch and he wants to know EVERYTHING.”
The post was met by a flurry of responses from tax advisers, barristers and traders objecting to the intrusion.
“No Client should ever speak to HMRC directly,” wrote tax barrister Daniel Feingold of Burnell Chambers. “They should only contact you through your Agent. Unless they open a Formal Enquiry, the scope of what they can ask, is in my view, very limited.”
Nick Skerrett, a partner at Resolution Tax, replied: “There is a balance here to understanding what they are asking for, what they are entitled to ask for, what is merely useful and what is overextension.”
Stuart Ritchie, Principal at taxation specialist Ritchie Phillips LLP, told Bloomberg: “This creates some tension between taxpayers and HMRC, with the tax authority saying, ‘tell us everything’ about your client, and the advisers responding, ‘on what statutory authority are you entitled to that information?’.”
In exchange for transparency, HMRC has promised billionaires a “more joined-up and direct service,” fewer repeated information requests, discussions focused on areas of “genuine uncertainty or risk” and earlier conversations about transactions or tax returns.
“Most clients are responding politely and saying thank you, but no thank you,” said Christopher Groves, a partner and co-head of the European private client and tax team at Withers LLP.
Mr Groves said some information being sought, in his view, goes beyond HMRC’s remit, with tax authorities in one instance asking about a client’s business succession plans – something he described as “a definite step too far.”
Charlie Sosna, head of private wealth and tax at Mishcon de Reya, said HMRC contacted multiple billionaire clients. The tax authority has sought comprehensive information including details of property, trusts, company assets and other sources of income and gains and how they’re structured.
“Some clients are seeking advice on whether they are legally required to provide everything HMRC has requested,” he said. “It’s really important to take advice early: sometimes the sensible approach is not simply to hand everything over automatically, but to understand what HMRC is entitled to ask for.”
Previously, HMRC had allocated compliance managers to wealthy individuals without specifically identifying or targeting billionaires as a distinct group. HMRC is now looking at the UK’s billionaire population using a combination of its own data, information in the public domain and that also shared by other countries.
Edward Troup, former executive chair and permanent secretary at HMRC, said what the tax authority wants from billionaires is full disclosure of the arrangements underpinning their income, gains and tax management.
“If they are not willing to, HMRC should be entitled to assume that there is something they would prefer not to tell HMRC about, in which case HMRC is entitled to make further and deeper inquiries,” he said. “That should be the social contract with the billionaire community.”
