Boston and Skegness MP says tax reports are ‘smear campaign’
The under-fire MP for Boston and Skegness has hit out at further reports about his tax affairs, saying there is a ‘smear campaign’ against him.
The Sunday Times this week delved further into the tax history of Reform UK’s Richard Tice. It said he ran four shell companies – a corporation without active business operations or significant assets – that did not pay any tax on profits between 2020 and 2022.
The newspaper also claimed that Mr Tice subsequently made significant donations to Reform UK through his investment firm.
This follows the Sunday Times’ previous report which stated that Mr Tice – who is also deputy leader of Reform UK – failed to pay £91,000 in corporation tax for his property company, Quidnet REIT Limited.
Mr Tice has issued a lengthy statement on social media and has hit back at claims that he failed to pay the correct amount of tax.
He wrote: “The Sunday Times is still crawling all my business career in the hope of dredging up some more obscure technical issues from years ago.
“They openly admit their “journalism” is a joint venture with a senior Labour Party activist. This smear campaign is getting ridiculous.
“As a result, I now appear to have a debenture slot on the front page as they rehash the same old dividend story.
“The Sunday Times article features assumptions, numbers and dates that are simply incorrect.
“Like the rest of us, they and their Labour Party tax experts sometimes make mistakes. It is all extremely technical: good luck keeping up.”
Mr Tice also accused the Financial Times of trying to ‘find some dirt’ from his past.
He added: “In a highly successful career spanning 40 years, I have done business in 12 countries across three continents, and been a director of more than 150 companies.
“I have helped build thousands of homes, creating thousands of jobs and generating hundreds of millions of value for shareholders and investors along with many tens of millions of tax for HMRC.
“I am very proud of this record. Throughout this career I have taken professional tax advice and have always paid everything that I was advised to pay.”
The Boston and Skegness MP went on to say that he’s happy to ‘put things right’ if he’s made a mistake – but believes he has paid the right amount of tax.
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.
“It is worth noting that last time my political enemies did this to me, during the Brexit referendum, HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) concluded that I had significantly overpaid.”
The Reform MP also claimed that ‘certain journalists’ were determined to put the ‘worst possible gloss’ over everything he’s done.
He added: “Meanwhile they wilfully ignore the highly questionable accounting of millions of pounds in Labour Party Properties Ltd.
“By any objective measure, this is a much simpler and more shocking story – but we are not in the land of objectivity here.
“The relentless effort to tarnish my good name is the kind of behaviour that deters other successful business people from going into politics.”
The Boston and Skegness MP concluded by saying he was working ‘flat out’ for his constituents and was campaigning for the local elections.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, has written to HMRC to investigate Mr Tice’s tax affairs.
Journalists from the Sunday Times have stood by their reporting.