Leave backers facing huge tax demands

DONORS who bankrolled the Brexit campaign have attacked HMRC after facing huge tax demands.

Banker Peter Cruddas, former Ukip donor Arron Banks and Midlands entrepreneur Lord Edmiston have all received inheritance tax demands in the past fortnight. One was for £2 million.

All three were prominent backers of the Leave campaign, leading to accusations that the move was the ‘revenge of the Establishment’.

Prominent banks that funded the Remain campaign will not be hit with the same demands.

HMRC said inheritance tax was payable now because obscure laws required people to pay it up front on large ‘gifts’.

Usually, donations to charities and political parties are exempt. But HMRC said these rules did not apply during a referendum campaign, meaning that donations from individuals were taxable.

But banks which funded the Remain campaign, including Goldman Sachs and J P Morgan, will escape action because they cannot be made liable for inheritance tax.

The tax demands were attacked by Boris Johnson as ‘bad for democracy’. A source close to the Foreign Secretary said: ‘This decision by HMRC will not only hit the plucky individuals who backed the Vote Leave campaign, but it will also make it more difficult for grassroots campaigns to be successful in future.’

Mr Banks is being asked to pay £2 million in inheritance tax on a £8.1 million donation. He told The Daily Telegraph the bill was the ‘revenge of the Establishment’.