What should be done about tax influencers?

20 March 2026

A SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) is a legal action undertaken in order to try to silence criticism, or prevent publicity, by legal bullying. The first official ruling that legal action was a SLAPP has come in litigation involving Dan Neidle, of Tax Policy Associates. Mr Neidle had described a scheme that was being promoted via social media as “nonsense”, leading to a defamation action with a claim for £8 million in damages. The action has been thrown out at an early stage, fortunately.

Tax schemes being promoted via social media are clearly a lucrative business, if the promoter who sued Mr Neidle is to be believed. His claim for £8 million was based on an estimated 80% loss of revenue from having his scheme criticised. And if Mr Neidle is to be believed, this scheme had no chance of success, so projected fee income of £10 million would have been a wizard wheeze.

Let’s not forget that when these schemes go wrong, the taxpayer picks up the tab, paying the tax plus penalties and interest. The promoter keeps the £10 million.

HMRC is in an invidious position: if it allows these schemes to go ahead, it collects the tax plus penalties and interest eventually but faces criticism for not nipping the schemes in the bud. On the other hand, it is hardly fair to expect HMRC to keep track of not just what sort of schemes are being “advertised” on social media but also who is promoting them (often abroad) and, more difficult still, who is taking up these bogus opportunities.

However, something must be done – it may be a wild west out there but the lawman has to stand up and be counted. Labour backbencher Stella Creasy introduced a new clause to the current Finance Bill, essentially requiring HMRC to tell Parliament what it was going to do about this problem. Because this wasn’t a government new clause, it didn’t make it into the final Bill – indeed, it wasn’t even discussed by the House of Commons – but the problem won’t go away that easily.

Incidentally, the proposed clause described a “tax influencer” as an individual who:

(a) is not a tax professional,

(b) promotes, markets or otherwise encourages participation in a tax avoidance arrangement, and

(c) does so by means of a social media service, where that promotion is carried out:

(i) in the course of a business or trade, or

(ii) in consideration of, or in expectation of, any payment or other benefit, whether from a promoter of the arrangement or from the social media service, or

(iii) with the intention of increasing engagement with, or the monetisation of, content relating to the arrangement.

Also incidentally, HMRC says in its website description of government professions: “You are a tax professional if your job role requires the application of tax knowledge and/or you are building an understanding of tax, developed through professional learning or experience”. This may, of course, not be the sort of “tax professional” excluded by Ms Creasy’s definition of a tax influencer.

The CIoT says, under the heading Skills of tomorrow’s taxation professional, “Tomorrow’s tax specialist will be a fusion of being a strategic business advisor with high commercial awareness, a diplomat, analyst and savvy technologist. Why?

“Just as tax is rapidly evolving with digitalisation, disruptive forces, and globalisation, the skill set of the tax professional will also undergo a transformation.

“As well as being able to explain complex regulations, meet deadlines, and find creative solutions to problems, tomorrow’s tax professional will need to analyse data in real time. The development in real-time tax dashboard and visualisation techniques now means tax professionals can offer game changing opportunities like never before.”

In the context of registration of tax advisers, HMRC says: “If you interact with HMRC about someone else’s tax affairs and get paid for it, we consider you to be a tax adviser.”

There’s a lot of thinking to be done in this sphere – not least in the standardisation of definitions – but the problem of social media tax influencers is not diminishing while we wait.

Blog post provided by Indicator Lefebvre Group – Thank you! www.indicator.co.uk