Richard Tice’s property investment company broke the law after failing to pay £91,000 in tax – Fact Check

Trust Score

Mixed (Partly Verified; Some Unverified; No conclusively False high-priority claims established)

Confidence: Medium

Standard

Emotional Tone Low

How emotionally charged the language is (low is neutral)

Reading Level Advanced

Suitable for age 18+ readers (grade 13)

Article Length Long

989 words

Caps & Emphasis Moderate

3.7% of words are capitalised (high can indicate sensationalism)

Executive Summary

The article’s core technical premise—that UK REIT Property Income Distributions (PIDs) are generally subject to 20% withholding which the REIT must deduct and pay to HMRC—is strongly supported by HMRC guidance and major professional tax sources. However, the article’s specific allegations about Quidnet REIT Ltd (amounts, timing, whether the withholding was in fact not operated, and whether that constitutes ‘broke the law’) are only partially corroborated using publicly accessible, up-to-date sources. The strongest corroboration comes from Tax Policy Associates (Dan Neidle) analysis relying on company filings, but direct primary evidence (e.g., HMRC determinations, tribunal/court findings, or company acknowledgement in statutory accounts) is not located within this research run. Several political/role assertions about Richard Tice (e.g., MP for Boston and Skegness; deputy leader of Reform UK) are time-sensitive and were not verified here with authoritative primary sources, so they are treated as unverified.

Factual Verification

Verified Claims

UK REIT Property Income Distributions (PIDs) are generally subject to withholding tax at the basic rate (20%), which the REIT deducts and accounts for to HMRC.
HMRC guidance describes an example where, for a PID of £1 per share, the shareholder receives £0.80 and £0.20 is paid over to HMRC (illustrative mechanics of withholding).
Professional tax sources state that PIDs are subject to 20% withholding tax (with some exemptions/reliefs in certain cases), consistent with HMRC guidance.

Unverified Claims

Quidnet REIT Ltd failed to apply the legally required 20% withholding tax on dividends/profits distributed to Richard Tice and a Jersey-registered offshore trust.
The amount of missing/uncounted withholding tax attributable to Quidnet’s distributions is ‘more than £91,000’ (or approximately £91,200).
Quidnet failed to apply withholding tax on multiple occasions between 2020 and 2021 (including specific dividend events described as ~£680,000; ~£290,000; and a third mixed cash/scrip payment).
Quidnet REIT Ltd ‘has been found to have broken tax rules’ (i.e., that there is an authoritative determination/decision already made by HMRC, a court, or a tribunal).
HMRC ‘now has the power to recover the unpaid tax and issue penalties’ in this specific case (as applied to Quidnet’s alleged non-withholding), as opposed to HMRC’s general powers in principle.
Richard Tice dismissed the issue as a ‘technicality’ and argued he later paid tax personally on the income (exact quote and context not verified from a primary record in this research).
Richard Tice is (as of April 2026) MP for Boston and Skegness.
Richard Tice is (as of April 2026) deputy leader of Reform UK.
The article’s characterisation that earlier scrutiny showed Quidnet ‘avoided significant corporation tax’ via a complex offshore structure (and that experts labelled it aggressive, though technically legal) as a settled finding.

Bias & Presentation

Detected Biases:

Loaded framing: repeated emphasis on ‘offshore structure’, ‘double standards’, and ‘wealthy individuals… loopholes’ signals a persuasive/political narrative beyond narrow verification.
Assertion inflation: the headline and lede imply an already-established legal finding (‘broke the law’, ‘has been found’) without presenting an identifiable adjudicating authority in-text.
Selective adversarial juxtaposition: contrasts criticism of other politicians with the subject’s alleged behaviour to imply hypocrisy; may be relevant context but is rhetorically amplifying.

Language Patterns

Emotional manipulation: 0.34

Quality Assurance

Limitations: ['The research did not retrieve the alleged Sunday Times article directly; therefore claims attributed to it cannot be verified from that outlet in this run.', 'HMRC internal manuals describe general rules/mechanics but do not confirm what happened in Quidnet’s case.', 'Some sources found discussing the story are commentary/derivative (e.g., Comsure summary), not original evidence.']

Confidence

Level: Medium

High confidence in the general REIT PID withholding framework (supported by HMRC manuals and multiple professional sources). Only medium-to-low confidence on the article’s specific allegations (non-withholding by Quidnet, exact amounts, and ‘has been found’/‘broke the law’) because corroboration is currently driven mainly by a detailed secondary analysis rather than an identifiable primary adjudication or direct, inspected statutory evidence in this research run.

Search Journal

Query: Quidnet REIT Ltd withholding tax Richard Tice 2020 2021 £91,200

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/04/11/richard-tice-company-failed-to-pay-120k-tax-dividends/

Query: Sunday Times Gabriel Pogrund Quidnet REIT £91,000 withholding tax April 2026

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/04/13/richard-tice-questions-unanswered-120k-tax/

Query: HMRC REIT property income distribution withholding tax 20% deduct basic rate

Query: United Kingdom REIT PID withholding tax 20% PwC

Query: Quidnet REIT Ltd interim report jun 2020 Richard Tice CEO

https://quidnetreit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/quidnet-reit-ltd-interim-report-jun-2020.pdf

Article Content

# Richard Tice’s property investment company broke the law after failing to pay £91,000 in tax - UK Fact Check Politics

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1. [Home]( 2. [Politics]( 3. Richard Tice’s property investment company broke the law after failing to pay £91,000 in tax

# Richard Tice’s property investment company broke the law after failing to pay £91,000 in tax

14:30 on 13/04/26 |[Rustam Wahab](

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A company founded and run by Richard Tice has been found to have broken tax rules after failing to pay tens of thousands of pounds in tax on dividends paid to him and an offshore trust.

Quidnet REIT Ltd did not apply a legally required 20 percent withholding tax before distributing profits to Tice and a trust registered in Jersey. As a result, more than £91,000 that should have gone directly to HMRC was not paid at the time.

Instead, the money remained tied up in dividends and shares benefiting Tice and his offshore structure.

Tice, now deputy leader of Reform UK and MP for Boston and Skegness, dismissed the issue as a “technicality”, arguing that he later paid tax personally on the income. But tax experts say that defence does not hold up.

The law is clear. Companies are required to deduct and pay the tax upfront when dividends are issued. It is not optional, and it is not something that can simply be corrected later on an individual tax return.

Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates said the rules are well understood across the property sector and described the failure as careless. He made clear that neither individuals nor companies get to decide when tax is paid. The obligation is set in law.

At the time, Quidnet was operating as a Real Estate Investment Trust, a structure designed to give tax advantages to property investors. While REITs avoid corporation tax on rental profits, they must deduct basic rate tax from dividends paid to individuals and trusts.

Quidnet failed to do this on multiple occasions between 2020 and 2021.

In one case, the company issued more than £680,000 in dividends as shares without deducting the tax that should have been paid. That meant thousands of pounds that should have gone to the public purse instead boosted shareholdings.

A second dividend of nearly £290,000 was again issued without the required deduction, giving Tice and his trust a larger payout than they were legally entitled to receive after tax.

A third payment, partly in cash and partly in shares, also failed to apply the withholding tax. Altogether, the missing tax adds up to around £91,200.

This is not a minor administrative slip. The company had a clear legal duty to deduct that tax before making payments. Whether Tice later paid income tax himself is irrelevant to that obligation.

HMRC now has the power to recover the unpaid tax and issue penalties.

The case also raises serious questions about double standards. Tice has previously attacked other politicians over tax issues, including Angela Rayner, saying her position was “morally completely indefensible” and suggesting she should resign.

Yet when it comes to his own financial affairs, the same standards appear not to apply.

The revelations come after earlier scrutiny of Quidnet’s tax arrangements, which showed the company avoided significant corporation tax while using a complex structure involving offshore entities. While technically legal, experts described the approach as aggressive tax planning.

Tice himself has openly said that people should aim to pay as little tax as possible.

But for many, this case reinforces a wider pattern. Wealthy individuals and corporations are able to benefit from complex financial structures and loopholes, while ordinary people are expected to pay their taxes in full and on time.

The issue is not just about one company or one politician. It is about a system that too often allows those at the top to play by a different set of rules.

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