{"id":529079,"date":"2026-04-13T20:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529079\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T20:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:05:11","slug":"unanswered-questions-on-120k-unpaid-reit-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529079\/","title":{"rendered":"unanswered questions on \u00a3120k unpaid REIT tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Tice isn\u2019t denying that Quidnet REIT, his property company, failed to pay around \u00a3120,000 of tax when it paid dividends to Mr Tice and his offshore trust. He says it doesn\u2019t matter, because he paid tax in full. That\u2019s wrong: Quidnet\u2019s failure to withhold REIT tax was unlawful, and the \u00a3120,000 remains due.<\/p>\n

But perhaps more importantly, Mr Tice is failing to answer two critical questions. Did his offshore trust pay any tax on the dividends? And did he and his trust pay tax at the correct rate?<\/p>\n

Our original report on the \u00a3120,000 tax issue is here<\/a>. The point was first identified by Gabriel Pogrund of The Sunday Times; we assisted with the story. The Sunday Times\u2019 report is here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What we know went wrong with Quidnet\u2019s tax<\/p>\n

From 2018 to 2021, Quidnet was a REIT<\/a> \u2013 a real estate investment trust.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a dividend declaration from Quidnet<\/a>, alongside a declaration from another REIT, Glenstone<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Quidnet<\/a>\"Glenstone<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a telling difference. Glenstone says it\u2019s declaring a \u201cProperty Income Distribution\u201d. Quidnet says that it\u2019s declaring a \u201cdividend\u201d.<\/p>\n

REITs are exempt from tax<\/a> on the income and gains from their UK property business. The quid pro quo is that, when they pay their profits to shareholders, it\u2019s not a normal dividend \u2013 it\u2019s a \u201cproperty income distribution\u201d.<\/p>\n

A normal dividend \u2013 as would be paid by e.g. Tesco plc \u2013 has no withholding tax. A UK individual or trust shareholder pays tax at the top rate<\/a> of 39.35% when they file their tax return in January of the following tax year.<\/p>\n

A property income distribution \u2013 as is usually paid by REITs \u2013 has 20% withholding tax immediately. A UK individual or trust shareholder pays tax<\/a> at the top rate of 45%, in the January of the following tax year with a credit for the tax withheld \u2013 so really a 25% top-up.<\/p>\n

Glenstone fully understands this. It looks like Quidnet and its advisers didn\u2019t understand this, and treated all their dividends as normal dividends. So Quidnet paid about \u00a3270k to Mr Tice and \u00a3330k to his offshore trust, without any withholding tax.<\/p>\n

What we don\u2019t know about Mr Tice and his offshore trust<\/p>\n

This was a surprising error for a REIT and its advisers to make \u2013 it\u2019s a very basic and fundamental REIT point. We don\u2019t know how the error was made, but there are broadly two ways it could have played out:<\/p>\n

1. The REIT got it wrong. Everyone else got it right.<\/p>\n

In this scenario, the REIT got it wrong, and thought it was paying normal dividends \u2013 so didn\u2019t withhold. But the shareholders got it right, and realised it was a property income distribution. <\/p>\n

So Mr Tice and his trust both paid tax at 45% \u2013 the correct treatment.<\/p>\n

Mr Tice can say that this was a mere technical failure and HMRC wasn\u2019t out of pocket. It is, however, more than that: Mr Tice obtained an unlawful tax benefit \u2013 the 20% was paid up to 21 months later than it should have been. And Mr Tice\u2019s payment didn\u2019t fix the company\u2019s failure to withhold tax \u2013 the tax remains due.<\/p>\n

2. Everyone got it wrong <\/p>\n

In this scenario, everyone acted consistently, and thought Quidnet was paying a normal dividend. <\/p>\n

The REIT didn\u2019t withhold. Mr Tice paid tax at 39.35%. The offshore trust either paid tax at 39.35%, or didn\u2019t pay tax at all.<\/p>\n

In this scenario, HMRC is most definitely out of pocket, and Mr Tice and\/or the trust owe tax, plus interest and probably penalties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which scenario are we in?<\/p>\n

Richard Tice isn\u2019t saying. <\/p>\n

In his own statements<\/a> and Reform UK\u2019s statements<\/a> they\u2019re clear that Mr Tice paid tax, but they\u2019re not saying anything about the rate he paid, and not mentioning the trust at all. <\/p>\n

We asked Mr Tice\u2019s lawyer these questions yesterday, but didn\u2019t receive a response:<\/p>\n

\"Dear<\/a><\/p>\n

These are very easy questions to answer: one look at the tax returns will show whether the dividends were correctly reported as \u201cother income<\/a>\u201d or, incorrectly, as \u201cdividend income\u201d.<\/p>\n

We will update this article if Mr Tice responds.<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Gabriel Pogrund<\/a> of the Sunday Times, who\u00a0discovered this story, and to K and M for the REIT and accounting analysis that underpins this and our original report. Thanks to P for a forensic accounting redo\/confirmation of the original figures (which moved them by a few hundred pounds).<\/p>\n

Photo of Richard Tice by Laurie Noble<\/a>, licensed under CC BY 3.0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Tice isn\u2019t denying that Quidnet REIT, his property company, failed to pay around \u00a3120,000 of tax when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-529079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}