This affects a number of people who used disguised remuneration schemes and whose loans have now been sold on to third party loan companies which are now contacting taxpayers about loan repayments.

‘In most cases, the request for repayment is because the original provider of the loan has sold the outstanding loans to a third party. In some cases, a loan may also be recalled by an insolvency practitioner,’ HMRC said in its latest policy paper.

HMRC warned that some of these third parties are now contacting users of the scheme to demand repayment of their outstanding loans – even if users believed they would not be asked to repay the loans. These companies may give the option of making a one-off payment to buy yourself out of the loan arrangement and have the balance written off.