Reform UK’s deputy leader comments came as he was responding to questions raised about his own tax affairs
All Britons should do their best to pay the minimum tax possible, Reform UK’s deputy leader has argued as he dismissed a newspaper investigation over his own tax affairs as a smear.
Richard Tice, who was presenting a press conference on Monday about Reform’s claims to have saved large sums of money in the English councils it runs, faced questions about a Sunday Times story which detailed a scheme the paper said had helped him avoid nearly £600,000 in corporation tax.
According to the paper, Tice’s property company used a rare legal status known as a real estate investment trust, or Reit, which meant it paid no corporation tax between 2018 and 2021. Labour has urged HMRC to investigate the arrangements.
Asked whether he was right to minimise his tax payments in such a way, Tice told reporters he rejected the idea people should “pay the absolute maximum tax possible”.
