Property118, Cotswold Barristers, and HMRC

If you are or have been a client of Property118 or Cotswold Barristers, please seek urgent independent tax and legal advice.

We’ve been watching with a growing sense of dread the saga unfolding over at Tax Policy Associates about these firms.

Property118 and Cotswold Barristers operate together, offering a tax avoidance scheme for buy-to-let landlords. However, neither party appears to possess the necessary tax qualifications, and we believe the scheme is highly unsuccessful.

In the view of the mortgage lenders’ industry body, the scheme is likely to default landlord mortgages. There are serious tax problems with the structure. There has been widespread promotion of this scheme in the market.

We are already acting for former clients of these firms and are in touch with barristers looking into the legal aspects. If you need help, we may currently be able to assist you, but our diaries are filling up rapidly.

Hat tip to Dan Neidle and Tax Policy Associates for investigating these firms and publishing their findings.

It was always reasonably clear that Property118’s schemes should have been disclosed to HMRC under DOTAS – the rules requiring disclosure of tax avoidance schemes.

Tax Policy Associates

it’s now likely that Property118’s clients will be the subject of HMRC enquiries, and face large tax liabilities, plus interest and potentially penalties.

Tax Policy Associates

If you would like to read the original reports and updates, we have linked to all of them here:

Tax Policy Associates 13 September 2023: Property118: a tax avoidance scheme for buy-to-let landlords that defaults their mortgage and increases their tax bill.

Tax Policy Associates 22 September 2023: The “amazing opportunity” from Property118 to avoid tax, and its amazingly bad consequences.

Tax Policy Associates 9 November 2023 What’s worse than a tax avoidance scheme? A badly implemented tax avoidance scheme.

Tax Policy Associates 28 November 2023 HMRC is likely investigating the two big landlord tax avoidance firms. What should their clients do?

Tax Policy Associates 14 February 2024: Property118: more denial from tax avoiders who’ve been caught.

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