UK TAX AUTHORITY SAY LAWYERS SHOULD NOT GIVE TAX ADVICE
City AM reports:
Thursday 04 September 2025 3:02 pm | Updated: Thursday 04 September 2025 3:03 pm
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HMRC names barrister in tax avoidance list for first time
Maria Ward-Brennan Senior Reporter
In an unprecedented move, HMRC has added a practising barrister, identified as the ‘designer’ of a tax avoidance scheme, to its list of tax avoidance promoters.
Tax barrister Setu Kamal, with 20 years of experience, stands accused of designing four tax avoidance schemes and producing the contract templates crucial to their operation.
Those schemes were MLG Pay Limited, The Umbrella Agency Limited, Veqta Ltd, and Vision HR Solutions Ltd, which HMRC said typically promised workers they could keep more of their pay by avoiding income tax and national insurance contributions.
Kamal was practising from Old Square Tax Chambers from 2005 till 2024 and is now a sole practitioner.
As of 4 September, HMRC has published details of more than 170 tax avoidance schemes and named more than 170 promoters; however, the move today sees a barrister added for the first time.
Jonathan Smith, HMRC’s director of counter avoidance, said: “Legal professionals have a position of trust and responsibility; they shouldn’t be involved in creating schemes that purport to let people avoid paying tax that funds our vital public services.”
“We want to support those who have used these schemes to exit them and bring their tax position up-to-date. I urge them to contact us as soon as possible so they can settle their affairs,” he added.
HMRC said this naming shows it is not just targeting companies, but is also after those who are behind them, “no matter their status”.
Kamal was contacted for a comment on the matter.
DO NOT GIVE ADVICE
The UK has already cone under strong challenge by the US administration over free speech restrictions.
This episode takes that to a new level. A lawyer has a professional and ethical duty to give the best advice he can to his clients.
HMRC now say: “they shouldn’t be involved in creating schemes that purport to let people avoid paying tax.”
That is a shocking statement. It is a statement that giving advice on transaction structuring which is perfectly legal – “to avoid paying tax” – should not be done. HMRC are now telling lawyers that they should not give their best advice: that lawyers should breach their professional and ethical duties.
It can only be imagined what would be the result if the IRS were to act in this way. The short answer is that they wouldn’t. And in any case, the constitutionally protected tights to counsel and of free speech would preclude any such thing.
So now the UK stands revealed as a country which punishes and clamps down on free speech, and now targets lawyers for doing their job.