‘HMRC broke our deal and is now chasing me to pay £250,000 at once’

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k not immediately pay back what they owe and are decided case by case. Around 700,000 deals were made in 2018-19 with 90pc completed successfully. The taxpayer offers the best plan for payment that they can realistically afford. If their ability to pay improves during the TTP period they must contact HMRC and either increase their payments or clear the debt. HMRC can cancel agreements if new facts come to light that suggest a TTP deal is no longer appropriate. It cancelled Mr Norris’s agreement when it discovered he had previously forgotten to disclose his annual bonus. Had the bon bonus been declared at the outset, the a agreement would never have been made, m it said. The independent indep adjudicator said HMRC did not n break its own rules by backing out of the TTP deal. Paul Spenceley, Spen of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said sai HMRC had become increasingly aggressive in recent years. He said sa the controversial “loan charge”, wh which levies a tax on people who used avoidance av schemes dating back 20 yea years and has been linked to at least one o suicide, was a testament testam to this hard-line approach. appro Telegraph Tel Money has reported how the t tax authority wrongly forced force suspected tax avoiders to sell s their homes or take out loans loa to settle bills, later refunding re the money once innocence in was proved. An HMRC spokesman said: sa “The vast majority of our ou customers pay on time and an in full. It’s important that tha we support our customers cust to settle their debts as quickly quic as possible to bring in revenue revenu that supports UK public services. service We work with these customers custom on a case-by-case basis t to help them pay any outstanding outst debt back in an affordable afford way.”

Jesse Norman MP is Financial Secretary to the Treasury easury