Tax avoidance schemes: why nurses should quit them, and tell HMRC

Advice for agency nurses on schemes marketed to them that purport to minimise their income tax liability – and why it’s imperative they leave them

Agency nurses and other contractors across the health sector are being targeted by unscrupulous promoters of tax avoidance schemes.

Tax avoidance is when the rules of the tax system are bent in an attempt to minimise tax liability.

In 2019 to 2020, the estimated amount of tax the UK lost to ‘marketed tax avoidance’ was around £0.5 billion, and the same was the case in the previous year.

The HM Revenue and Customs report, Use of Marketed Tax Avoidance schemes in the UK , has shown that contractors are often targeted and drawn into schemes marketed by companies promising