Tax deals for student loan bosses spark inquiry call

Published on Monday 6 February 2012 00:00

AN INVESTIGATION has been demanded into tax deals for the Scotland-based Student Loans Company (SLC) after it was revealed that half of the board were recently being paid as consultants.

In addition to the company’s head, Ed Lester – who has been at the centre of controversy after it was revealed that the Treasury had allowed his salary to be paid in a “tax-efficient” form through a private company – three other members of the eight-strong executive board were paid through private companies instead of the company’s pay roll.

It is believed that the £350,000 of payments made them would have saved them a total of about £40,000 in tax.

The three board members said to have benefited from the arrangement were named as David Wallace, Taroub Zahran, and Harry Taylor.

Since becoming full-time members of staff, Mr Wallace and Ms Zahran have moved to regular salaries, while Mr Taylor has since left the company.

MSP Hugh Henry, Labour’s education spokesman, has said that the public spending watchdog Audit Scotland should now investigate how money was being spent at SLC.

He said: “Any attempt to minimise the tax for top officials when low-paid workers are bearing the burden of financial cuts is frankly unacceptable.”

In a statement, SLC said: “The interim directors were hired at a time when the company was in extreme diffculty operationally. There was an immediate need for experienced senior managers … who could take control and manage the situation.

“Interim directors were responsible for their own tax, national insurance and pension arrangements. David Wallace and Taroub Zahran are now permanent employees of the SLC and their tax and national insurance are deducted at source.”

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leithforme

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:22 AM

why is it always the rich who get these 'schemes' to avoid tax, if it's good enough for Salmonds pals, I think he should be pushing for everybody to come off PAYE in Scotland and we'll all become 'tax efficient', would be a vote winner, and lets face it, most of our tax gets poured down the drain anyway so it might make them a bit more careful with what's left to collect; come on Alex, annouce this as your next greart policy initiative for Scotland!

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americanbob

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:45 PM

I wonder just how many people working on building sites would be able to be paid in this "tax efficient way" quite so easily as seems to be the case here?

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