The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt plans to legislate to raise the stakes for people ‘who refuse to stop promoting tax avoidance in the UK’, with the threat of prison sentences for the offence.

The Treasury said that ‘fewer non-compliant tax avoidance schemes operating in the market cuts the likelihood of people getting involved with them and facing thousands of pounds in unexpected future tax bills and penalties as a result’.

The UK loses around £400m per year to marketed tax avoidance, money which could be going towards public services, and it is the users of schemes, including agency workers, contractors and freelancers, who can end up with big tax bills, rather than the promoters who sold it to them.