Reform’s Richard Tice has been the subject of what I fear is intended as a hit-piece in the Sunday Times. “The Deputy Leader of Reform UK avoided nearly £600,000 in corporation tax after obtaining a rare legal status for his company,” it reports. “Richard Tice then channeled the company’s dividends into an offshore trust and a string of dormant businesses. Several did not pay any tax during the relevant period.” They say all this, I regret to have to report, as if it’s a bad thing.

Tice showed just the sort of entrepreneurial ambition we can hope for from a true Brexit believer

Tice showed just the sort of entrepreneurial ambition we can hope for from a true Brexit believer

At issue is the status of a property company majority-owned and controlled by Mr Tice called Quidnet Reit Ltd, between 2018 and 2021. The company registered for a special status called a Retail Estate Investment Trust (Reit), which would allow the company to issue dividends to shareholders rather than paying corporation tax. This is a special status usually applying to much bigger companies – FTSE-listed, sovereign wealth funds and suchlike – but Mr Tice, evidently, was thinking big; and good on him. One of the conditions that a would-be Reit needs to meet is that it is “non-close”,........

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