Call for major parties to lose tax-free status
BRITAIN’S major political parties should be stripped of their tax-free status because they misjudged the coun- try by backing Remain ahead of the European Union referendum, two Leave donors say today.
Jeremy Hosking, a City fund manager, and Stuart Wheeler, a spread betting millionaire, blamed HM Revenue and Customs’s attempts to levy inheritance tax bills on “dark forces” and said they were “un-british” and evidence of “a counter referendum-result witch hunt” by the Establishment.
Letters that could lead to tax demands running into millions of pounds have been sent to major Leave donors, as well as a Remain donor. Mr Hosking gave £1.6 million to the Leave campaign and is facing an inheritance tax bill of up to £320,000. Mr Wheeler has just paid £250,000 on his £1millionplus donation after being threatened with interest bills. In a letter to today’s
Daily Telegraph the pair say that “Brexit donors are understandably aggrieved at HMRC’S inheritance tax grab” and suspected it was part of “a witch hunt by an Establishment”.
They say: “The question is less whether the HMRC grab is lawful, than which public figures have nudged them to act in this un-british, capricious and retrospective way?”
An HMRC spokesman said: “HMRC objectively applies the tax laws passed by Parliament. Tax decisions are always based on the law and never on the personal beliefs or values of the individual or campaign. Inheritance tax rules have been in place for decades.”
♦ David Cameron feared he would be ousted as Tory leader if he did not commit to holding a Brexit referendum, his former communications chief Sir Craig Oliver has revealed. In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 series The Cameron
Years, Sir Craig said Mr Cameron would have been hit by a wave of Conservative defections to Ukip if he had not promised to give the country the opportunity of an in/out vote.
£320,000 The amount Jeremy Hosking faces being charged in inheritance tax on his donation of £1.6 million to the Leave campaign