Tax on Brexit donors

SIR – Brexit donors are understandably aggrieved at HM Revenue and Customs’ inheritance tax grab on their personal donations at the time of the referendum (report, December 28).

Until such time as HMRC pursues donors to the Remain side as well as Leavers or produces precedents of prior tax gathering efforts in previous referendums (to say nothing of Remain’s Iht-immune corporate backers or the £9million taxpayerfunded leaflet), they will suspect this to be part of a witch hunt by an Establishment countering the result of the referendum.

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?

And why did it take 18 months to produce this hindsight tax that no one had thought of before?

A consequential question also arises as to whether political parties should have a tax-advantaged status over public debate in Britain, especially given their failure to gauge the public mood in the Brexit referendum, in which the three main parties all supported Remain.

Brexit donors who fear that dark forces have been at work and who suspect, with justification, that there would be no inheritance tax levy had Remain won, at least have the following consolation: the upside of the United Kingdom being once again a sovereign nation, with the opportunity to forge new fast-growing commercial relationships quickly without the drag of a £15billion annual tithe to Brussels.

Jeremy Hosking

Stuart Wheeler

London WC2