Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice is under pressure to “urgently” explain himself over reports he avoided paying nearly £600,000 in corporation tax
Reform UK’s deputy leader is under pressure to “urgently” explain himself over reports he avoided paying nearly £600,000 in corporation tax.
Richard Tice reportedly avoided paying corporation tax on his property company Quidnet Reit Ltd over a three-year period after gaining a rare legal status for his firm.
Mr Tice – who is Reform’s Business, Trade and Energy spokesman – insists he has complied with the rules.
The Reform MP is accused of avoiding hundreds of thousands in corporation tax by listing his firm on the Guernsey stock exchange and applying for it to become a real estate investment trust (REIT), according to the Sunday Times.
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Mr Tice’s firm reportedly did not meet the technical tests for REIT status however a legal quirk meant it gained the status from 2018 to 2021. REITs are exempt from paying corporation tax during a grace period.
Firms with the status instead issue a portion of a company’s earnings to shareholders, who are then taxed individually.
But Mr Tice’s ownership structure reportedly saw portions of his company’s earnings channelled into an offshore trust and dormant businesses. Quidnet no longer has REIT status.
Labour’s chair Anna Turley said: “Richard Tice urgently needs to explain himself – to the British public and to HMRC. Why has he gone to such extreme lengths to avoid paying his taxes, and has all the tax he owes been paid?
“If these claims are true, it looks like Reform’s Deputy Leader is just in it for himself – not for working people who couldn’t even dream of earning the kind of money he appears to have hidden from the taxman. Nigel Farage needs to decide whether that’s what he wants Reform to stand for.”
Mr Tice said Quidnet was a “UK company paying UK tax operating in accordance with UK laws” and that it was “not unusual for property companies to seek REIT status”.
He said there was “nothing complex or unusual about a UK company having a range of shareholders, some of whom are directors”.
He added: “Voters should be reassured to have a successful businessman who knows how to make money for shareholders running a business, trade and energy department, making money and growth for taxpayers.
“If the country had had this before maybe we would not be in the current dire economic pickle.”