Baker Tilly partner David Heaton has resigned from the government's advisory panel on the General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR) after being filmed telling a conference audience how to 'keep money out of the Chancellor's grubby mitts'.

Heaton made the comments at a London event in June entitled 101 ideas for personal tax planning. During his presentation he suggested ten tips for reducing tax via changing arrangement for National Insurance contributions (NICs), including a scheme he called the Bump Plan which involved timing bonuses to enable an increased rebate on maternity pay.

The presentation was covertly recorded by BBC's Panorama programme, as part of a joint investigation with Private Eye on tax planning. Heaton was one of the tax experts appointed to the government's new GAAR panel in July, but resigned on Friday following news of the BBC investigation.

Heaton said he had been lecturing to an audience of tax professionals on some of the oddities of National Insurance law, including the rules around Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), when filmed. He described his aim when lecturing on 'a dry-as-dust subject like NIC' is to 'spice things up with colourful and provocative language and make things memorable with exaggerated examples'.

Heaton, who chairs the ICAEW employee taxes and NIC committee, emphasised that his integrity had never been questioned before, and that none of his clients had exploited the rule he discussed, nor had he encouraged any of them to do so.

'The SMP refund rule and the potential for abuse were actually discussed in Parliament in April 2006 (it's been around since 1986, so it's not my invention) and it could have been blocked ages ago, but it hasn't. If it's so abusive, why not? You can't be an expert without knowing where the quirks are found, and you can't lecture an audience about NIC without doing something to make it interesting, which is why training organisations ask me to lecture for them,' Heaton said.

David Gauke, Treasury Secretary, said: 'The role of the GAAR advisory panel is to make sure the GAAR is used where appropriate - that is to challenge the most artificial, contrived and aggressive behaviour. Mr Heaton's statements are directly at odds with the Government's approach to tackling tax avoidance. A member of the panel should not behave in a way that could undermine the GAAR and its effectiveness. Therefore, it is right that Mr Heaton resigned from his position.'

Joe Burnie, Baker Tilly's head of tax, said: 'Although Panorama highlighted some interesting issues around current tax law, we were disappointed that David Heaton was singled out as part of the programme's stated objective of investigating the truth about UK Tax Policy. Panorama used a presentation given by David where he explained several tax planning ideas and the recommendations he gave were all in line with current tax law. He did not recommend or give advice that could be interpreted as either aggressive tax avoidance or tax evasion, which is of course illegal.'

An HMRC spokesman said: 'The work of the GAAR advisory panel plays an important role in HMRC's highly effective drive against tax abuse. The panel must command the confidence of both tax practitioners and the general public. We will be announcing Mr Heaton's successor shortly.'

Heaton said he had resigned as it was clear that the BBC 'weren't going to let go of the bone' and that 'my only regrets are that the debate on tax avoidance isn't more adult and that I will now have to contribute indirectly. I'll carry on lecturing in my own style, and I'll carry on refusing to sell contrived or abusive tax schemes.'

The programme, Tax, Lies and Videotape, will be shown on BBC One at 8.30pm tonight.

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