Richard Tice allegedly failed to pay almost £100,000 in corporation tax to the benefit of his investment company, which in turn made donations to Reform UK, it has been reported.
In response to the report in the Sunday Times, the deputy leader of Reform UK posted a lengthy statement on X, in which he said: “A long career with multiple businesses is bound to feature some errors. Naturally I am always happy to put things right and if numbers need rechecking, of course I will pay what is owed – be that more or less.”
Tice ran four shell companies – a corporation without active business operations or significant assets – that allegedly did not pay any tax on profits between 2020 and 2022, the Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper said the companies had been set up to receive dividends from Tice’s property investment firm and pass the money to their parent company. Between March 2020 and May 2022, Tisun Investments Ltd then transferred £1,113,000 to Reform UK, the newspaper reported.
The Liberal Democrats have written to John-Paul Marks, the chief executive of HMRC, asking him to investigate Tice’s tax affairs.
Reform directed the Guardian to Tice’s statement on X when approached for comment.
He said: “Here’s the reality: tax efficiency is a basic corporate responsibility and duty to shareholders. A long career with multiple businesses is bound to feature some errors. Naturally I am always happy to put things right and if numbers need rechecking, of course I will pay what is owed – be that more or less.”
Tice accused the Sunday Times of “crawling all my business career in the hope of dredging up some more obscure technical issues from years ago” and claimed the newspaper was collaborating with the Labour party in a “smear campaign”.
In response to the report, the Labour party chair, Anna Turley, said: “Richard Tice’s credibility is in tatters and Nigel Farage needs to urgently explain why he remains Reform’s deputy leader.
“Tice aggressively attacked the Sunday Times for raising questions about his tax affairs, but he now admits that he may not have paid the taxes he owes.”
She added: “This is a major scandal that’s not going away. Tice has called for others to resign over tax errors that involved less money than this.”
Reform’s Treasury spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, said that Tice “thinks he’s paid the right tax”.
The former Conservative minister told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “Richard has taken advice, he believes he has paid the tax that he should have paid. In fact, he thinks he may have overpaid tax because he paid it through his personal taxation, rather than through the company.
“If it transpires that he’s underpaid tax, of course he’ll settle it. But that is not his position. He thinks he’s paid the right tax, and that’s absolutely right. As far as I know, HMRC are not investigating. So there is no story.”
