Row over Reform UK deputy leader's £91,000 tax is 'minor admin error', party says

A row over tax paid by Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice's property company was "a minor administrative error", his party has claimed.

The company, which Tice founded and owned, failed to pay £91,000 in tax before dividends were paid to him and his offshore trust, according to the Sunday Times.

Tice has called the failure a "technicality" and said "overall HMRC received the correct amount of tax due".

Labour has called the row "a major scandal which goes to the heart of Richard Tice's integrity and credibility".

A HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) spokesperson said: "We neither confirm nor deny investigations and we cannot comment on identifiable individuals."

Tice's company, Quidnet REIT Limited, invests in property.

The Sunday Times reported that it "did not pay a required 20 per cent levy on [its] dividends … before channelling profits to Tice and his trust registered in Jersey".

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson conceded that this was "a minor administrative error" but told Sky News it was a "non story".

"Any tax that would have not been paid or underpaid by the company paying the dividend… would then have been overpaid by Richard himself in the form of income tax", Yusuf said.

"So it does look like HMRC netted off in the same way."

In a post on X, Tice said the Sunday Times's reporting had revealed that "overall HMRC received the correct amount of tax due".

He said the paper was "effectively complaining I paid too much tax rather than [my] company pay some tax on my behalf".

A Labour spokesperson said: "This is a major scandal which goes to the heart of Richard Tice's integrity and credibility. Reform cannot ignore it.

"Richard Tice urgently needs to explain whether his business followed the law and paid the full tax it owed."

Last month, Labour asked HMRC to investigate the tax affairs of Tice.

Labour's chair Anna Turley wrote to the tax authority after the Sunday Times reported Tice had "avoided nearly £600,000 in corporation tax" through his property company.

At a press conference in Westminster, Tice said Quidnet Reit Ltd was "a UK company paying UK tax in accordance with UK laws", adding there was no "obligation" to pay the maximum tax required and suggested few people would likely take such a decision.

Speaking at the press conference, Tice asked journalists: "How many friends of yours would voluntarily choose to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to do?

"The idea that morally, we have got to pay the maximum tax we possibly can - therein lies the road to ruin for the UK as an economy."