The Post Office could be facing a £100m bill and insolvency after claiming tax relief for its compensation payments to sub-postmasters, a tax expert has claimed.
Dan Neidle, the head of non-profit organisation Tax Policy Associates, said the Post Office claimed £934m tax relief for its compensation payments, and suggested it could be “unlawful”.
The Horizon scandal saw more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses handed criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
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Mr Neidle posted on X saying: “The Post Office claimed £934m tax relief for its compensation payments to the postmasters it persecuted. That’s outrageous. It’s also unlawful – so the Post Office now faces an unexpected £100m tax bill. It may be insolvent.
“Our team of eminent tax and accounting experts reviewed the Post Office’s accounts for the last ten years in detail and one issue stood out: it has treated the compensation it pays to postmasters as tax deductible. That is not correct.
“A source at the Post Office has confirmed to us that HMRC is investigating this and asserting that the Post Office owes tax – in our view they are right to do so.”
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HMRC would not confirm or deny investigations and said it would not comment on identifiable taxpayers.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “The disclosed information on taxation in Post Office’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2022/23, published on 20 December 2023, is appropriate and accurate.
“We have regular conversations with government who are our sole shareholder and our correspondence in respect of this issue was about ensuring that the tax treatment of funding we receive from government to pay compensation was treated in the same way as other government funding that we receive.”
Days after the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office aired, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the wrongly prosecuted in England and Wales could have their names cleared by the end of the year under blanket legislation to be introduced within weeks.