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Exposed: Private briefings show that the Treasury KNEW that Ray McCann was not a “genuinely independent” reviewer for the so-called ‘independent’ Loan Charge review 

Damning new information of private Treasury discussions has exposed that Treasury Ministers and officials KNEW that Ray McCann’s long history of working for HMRC and of regularly commenting on the Loan Charge scandal would create a perceived conflict of interest. Despite this, he was appointed anyway, to lead a restricted and biased review that left the Loan Charge in place and assumed that those affected were liable for the disputed retrospective tax.

The then Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray MP took the decision to appoint Ray McCann despite briefing notes from officials acknowledging FOUR serious issues, regarding Mr McCann’s suitability to conduct what was supposed to be an independent review:

  1. Ray McCann’s 31 years of working for HMRC/the Inland Revenue and in the same department and area of work as the Loan Charge.
  2. Ray McCann’s public statements and regular engagement in debates on Twitter/X, including noting he expressed a lack of sympathy to those caught up in the Loan Charge Scandal, prior to his appointment.
  3. That Ray McCann, as a former HMRC inspector, could not possibly meet the criteria for an independent reviewer, according to the criteria laid down – and sent to Ministers – by MPs in the Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness APPG and the Loan Charge Action Group.
  4. That Ray McCann has expressed support for the Labour Government and criticized the Conservative Party.

The key section in the FOI material, from a document headed No 10 Direct Appointments Pro Forma, there is a section on candidate due diligence (halfway down page 10). This states:

The FOI disclosures demonstrate that concerns regarding Mr McCann’s independence were not merely raised externally by campaigners and parliamentarians but were explicitly identified internally by Treasury and HMRC officials themselves during the appointment process.

A briefing note to Ministers (page 7) admits:

“You should note the risk that this creates a perceived conflict of interest, particularly if the scope of the review requires a reviewer to consider HMRC’s historical role in tackling disguised remuneration prior to the introduction of the Loan Charge.”

The same briefing note (page 4) lays out Mr McCann’s HMRC history as follows, noting not only is very long time working for the tax authority, but also that he worked in the same department and area of work as that related to the Loan Charge:

“Mr. McCann worked for the Inland Revenue/HMRC for 31 years. During his time with HMRC, he worked as an Inspector of Taxes in various compliance roles and was latterly a Deputy Director in HMRC’s Anti-Avoidance Group (AAG) (the predecessor to the current Counter Avoidance directorate)”

“During his time in AAG, Mr. McCann was directly involved in HMRC’s activity to counter the use of disguised remuneration schemes, including leading on the development and implementation of the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme (DOTAS) rules that require promoters of tax avoidance schemes to notify HMRC of their schemes. You should note the risk that this creates a perceived conflict of interest, particularly if the scope of the review requires a reviewer to consider HMRC’s historical role in tackling disguised remuneration prior to the introduction of the Loan Charge.”

This is despite a previous promise by James Murray, who appointed Mr McCann, that he would commit to commissioning a “truly independent review” [1], something also echoed by Darren Jones MP, who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury when Ray McCann was appointed and is now Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister[2]. The latest revelations show that Mr Murray – and the Chancellor – understood any review led by former HMRC Assistant Director Ray McCann could not and would not be “genuinely independent”. James Murray also called for a fresh independent review in the House of Commons in opposition in 2021, proclaiming “This new review must finally offer a truly independent assessment”[3] something that the McCann Review most certainly is not.

Further exposing the clear broken promise and U-turn by the current Government, Chancellor Rachel Reeves also stated, when Shadow Chancellor, “HMRC seem to be coming after the people who were mis-sold these products rather than the people who were mis-selling them, and that is a real scandal”. Yet the McCann Review recommendations leave in place the same approach – with HMRC only pursuing victims of mis-selling, whilst not seeking to recover a penny from those who mis-sold the arrangements and made millions doing so.

Further information revealed exposes that the Treasury appointed Ray McCann despite acknowledging that he did not – and could not – be regarded as independent, according to the simple criteria laid down by both the MPs and peers of the Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness APPG and the Loan Charge Action Group (LCAG). The Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness APPG,  had laid out in detail, in a letter to the Chancellor in December 2024, before the review was announced, the basic criteria of what independent would mean including that it had to be someone with no links to HMRC.

A briefing note (page 4) states that this was understood – but completely ignored :    

“In their letter to the Prime Minister (in his then position of Leader of the Opposition) during the General Election period, the Loan Charge Action Group (LCAG) set out their asks for a ‘genuinely independent review’. These included that “The reviewer/head of the inquiry must not be appointed by Government (Treasury and HMRC) and they must have no input into candidates or candidate selection. The APPG has previously suggested a tax judge, but whoever it is it must be someone with no links to HMRC or Government, past or present.”

The Ministerial briefing note (page 4) acknowledged that the Loan Charge Action Group had called for:

“someone with no links to HMRC or Government, past or present”

Before concluding:

“So, you should note that Mr. McCann does not meet LCAG’s stated criteria for a suitable reviewer.”

In light of these new damning revelations, that blow apart any credible claim that the McCann Review was independent, The Loan Charge Action Group has written to the Chancellor and to the head of HMRC and the Treasury asking a series of questions.

With his 31 year history of working for HMRC and in the same overall area of HMRC activity, Mr McCann could not be further from what the APPG laid out in terms of what an independent chair or review lead should be. Appointing former HMRC Assistant Director Mr. McCann to lead an ‘independent review’ of HMRC’s Loan Charge is like appointing a former senior Post Office executive to lead an ‘independent review’ into the Post Office Scandal.          

The concerns are compounded by Mr McCann’s long-standing and public involvement in the Loan Charge debate. Mr McCann has an extensive history of public debate on Twitter (now X). Prior to his appointment, Ray McCann had regularly expressed views publicly on the Loan Charge and the whole scandal something that in any genuinely independent review would also have ruled him out.

The Ministerial briefing note (page 8 point 14) states:

“…his commentary and engagement on this issue are likely to be scrutinised carefully following his appointment and may be used by those unsatisfied by the review in an attempt to undermine Mr McCann, his review and/or its recommendations. For example, while his evidence to the TSC in 2018 was reasonably even-handed and not uncritical of the Loan Charge policy and HMRC, he did say: “It is quite a challenge for someone who has any knowledge and experience of these arrangements [loan schemes] to look at this with great sympathy.”

Now that all of this is public, it also exposes the sheer dishonesty on the part of the Treasury when deliberately omitting Ray McCann’s 31 year history of working for HMRC in all descriptions of him regarding the Review. This is what James Murray said in his ministerial statement when announcing the review:

“I have therefore asked Ray McCann, a former President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, to conduct a review”.

Similarly, this is what it states on the Government website only mentioning his one year as a former President of the CIOT and omitting his 31 years working for the tax authority:

“In January 2025 the then Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury commissioned Ray McCann, a former president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, to lead a new independent review of the loan charge”.

In all descriptions of Ray McCann, in conjunction with the review, the Treasury and HMRC have deliberately omitted any mention of his 31 years working for HMRC/IR, despite having privately discussed this in detail. LCAG has called for an apology and an investigation into this as to which civil servants are responsible, as this deliberate and cynical omission is a breach of the civil service code core value of  ‘honesty’ which is defined as being ‘truthful and open’.

It is ironic that that when in opposition, James Murray, who announced the appointment of Ray McCann when he was Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said “It’s about having an independent review to restore trust”.[4]

Instead, a cynical decision was taken to appoint a former Assistant Director of HMRC, who worked for HMRC and the Inland Revenue for 31 years to lead a review that wasn’t even a review of the Loan Charge itself or how and why HMRC proposed it – and then omit his 31 years of working for HMRC from all Government documentation. Rather than “restore trust” this has inevitably done the opposite.

Steve Packham from the Loan Charge Action Group said:

“The restricted and biased McCann Review into the Loan Charge can no longer be presented in any way as being independent. It is now clearly in the public domain that whilst publicly trying to pretend there were no conflicts of interest, privately Ministers and officials discussed in detail four key reasons why Ray McCann could not credibly be regarded as an independent reviewer.

“Treasury Ministers have been taking people for fools. Ray McCann not only worked for HMRC, but also has made numerous comments that display a predetermined position, expressing a lack of sympathy for those caught up in the whole nightmare, but also expressing support for the Loan Charge itself.  To call this an ‘Independent Loan Charge Review’ is pure dishonesty.

Treasury Ministers promised a “genuinely independent” review yet instead appointed a former Assistant Director of HMRC to conduct a highly restricted and biased review, that started from a position of retaining the retrospective Loan Charge and maintaining the position that victims of mis-selling should be liable for all the disputed demands with promoters again getting off scot free. This is a clear broken promise by Ministers and another clear U-turn.

“James Murray had said he wanted to restore trust by commissioning a genuinely independent review, yet he and the Government then cynically appointed a former HMRC Assistant Director, who had worked for HMRC and the revenue for 31 years, then deliberately ommitted mentioning this in all public documentation and only mentioning his one year as a past President of the CIOT . This is a breach of the basic principles of the Ministerial and Civil Service Code and there should be a proper investigation into this obvious dishonesty”.

Greg Smith MP, Co-Chair of the Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness APPG said:

“These latest revelations shatter any pretence that the Labour Government has conducted the ‘genuinely independent’ review that Ministers promised. We now know that the Treasury privately acknowledged serious concerns about Ray McCann’s lack of independence, yet appointed him anyway, and then publicly presented this as an independent review.

“Appointing someone who worked for HMRC for 31 years in the same area of work as the Loan Charge to do a review of the Loan Charge, is just like appointing a senior Post Office executive to conduct a review of the Post Office Scandal.

“The Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness APPG laid out in detail, before the review was announced, the basic criteria of what independent would mean, including that it had to be someone with no links to HMRC. Yet despite acknowledging that Ray McCann was clearly not independent according to this basic test, Treasury Ministers went ahead and appointed him anyway.  Worse still, they then have deliberately omitted Mr McCann’s 31 year history of working for HMRC and its predecessor, the Inland Revenue from Government documents, which is simply dishonest.

“It is now abundantly clear that this was a convenient appointment, by a former senior HMRC official who has expressed support for the Labour Government, which was deliberately devised not to properly investigate HMRC and the wider Loan Charge Scandal. This latest fiasco is another sorry chapter in the whole Loan Charge Scandal, which further strengthens the call for an independent inquiry into the whole Loan Charge Scandal, something that the Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness APPG continues to call for”.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

  1. The Loan Charge Action Group is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run campaign group representing tens of thousands of contractors and freelancers. LCAG was formed in 2018 to challenge the UK Government’s 2019 Loan Charge, a controversial, retrospective tax measure introduced by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and other ill treatment of contractors and freelance workers, as well as calling for wider taxpayer fairness.

 

[1] https://x.com/jamesmurray_ldn/status/1466102915056218115

[2] https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-01-18/debates/2DAF0F4F-46F3-446E-9594-292B97A6F3E0/LoanCharge#contribution-E0F7692A-DCF2-4BEE-8A6A-D892BBAC8818:~:text=Will%20the%20Treasury,of%20those%20schemes.

[3] https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-12-01/debates/

[4] https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/loan-charge-victim-contemplated-ending-their-own-life-mps-are-told-3487833