Welcome to the Global Loan Charge Alliance

We are a global alliance against the global surge of retrospective legislation and taxation.

The best and most prominent example of this is the 20 years retrospective so called 'Loan charge' that has come into force in the United Kingdom on 5th April 2019.

Loan Charge Suicides

Sadly, several confirmed #LoanChargeSuicides have already been reported as a direct consequence of this penal, unjust and frankly immoral policy that was passed by UK Parliament as part of the 2017 Finance Bill No. 2 and received Royal assent on 16 November 2017.

To this day, the saga continues but the dissenting voices globally are rising. The Tory #LoanChargeScandal has now been noted in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, India and Asia. And, even the United Nations have expressed their explicit concern about the UK's move towards aggressive and contrived retrospective legislation.

Many hundred thousands are thought to be victims of the Loan charge although the "disguised" nature of it means that the real number - particularly if extrapolated over 20 yrs - could also be a multiple of this. HMRC itself has revised its figures up from originally 50,000 to 60,000, with the latest number quoted recently to be 105,000.

Although the Loan Charge Action Group (LCAG) to date has saved more than 200 lives via its helpline and email, twitter and other social media interventions, there is a real danger of further loss of lives in form of #LoanChargeSuicides.

Whilst the acute suicide risk is not new at all and has been highlighted since mid-2018, UK government to this date has largely chosen to ignore the ever louder calls for a pause and independent judge-led review of the Loan Charge.

Please see the section UK Parliamentarians for some examples of calls by high-profile politicians for a pause & review - NOW!

International condemnation

The wide-spread condemnation of the Loan Charge has not just been felt across Great Britain. With calls for a pause & review getting louder by the day, the international community has seemingly watched the recent developments closely. That said, UK-based UN observers have raised their concerns already last year in Geneva as part of observing a sharp increase of professional & systemic misconduct in the UK government and public services, such as HM Customs & Excise (HMRC, the UK customs & tax office.)

The United Nations' commentary on the negative effect of 20 yrs retrospective legislation in form of the Loan Charge formed part of the evidence of the 4th Dec 2018 House of Lords' report, available on the UK Parliament website (Hansard).

Specifically, they...

• “discussed the detrimental impact on both national economies and international trade caused by retroactive legislation that is written into law now or in the near future yet taking effect from a date well in the past (i.e. retrospective legislation in the United Kingdom, going back 20 years).”

• It continues to say that “such legislation undermines any certainty in and predictability of the legal system in particular and dilutes trust into the Westminster parliamentary system in general. Consequently, both large Corporates and small-medium enterprises will choose a principle place of business (PPOB) that offers greater certainty and predictability, and otherwise - if need be - relocate.”

• The UN’s memo concludes with the recommendation to “raising global governments’ awareness of the intrinsic link between certainty of legislature and international business’; sentiment towards the same. […] further recommends establishing a climate of legislative certainty by staying clear of any retroactive legislation altogether.”

Interestingly, this is not the first time that the UN has condemned the UK government over human rights breaches. One could argue that the Loan charge, by its retrospective (some, including the Financial Secretary to the Treasury call it "retro-active") nature represents a fundamental breach of human rights.

In fact, only by claiming that the Loan charge "is not retrospective" did the UK government manage putting the Loan charge into legislation - effectively circumventing the UK Parliament's influential Joint Committee on Human Rights altogether. One could argue that this is at best a breach of parliamentary protocol and at worst, government deception of Parliament and democratic process. Hence, it should not come as a surprise that the United Nations condemns the Loan charge as a "threat to the Westminster parliamentary system". Let's hope UK government digests this inwardly and acts accordingly.

This must stop. It's becoming a truly global threat.

For more details on the retrospective taxation in general and the loan charge in particular, please check out:

• The All-Party Parliamentary Loan Charge Group (UK)

• UK Parliamentarians (UK)

• Loan Charge Action Group (UK)

• Aussies Against The Loan Charge (Australia)

• Income tax destroying the World Economy (United States)

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Please check back often as we are adding more to this page all the time.