The Guardian reports that thousands of employees including IT and NHS workers across the UK are receiving “staggering bills” from the HMRC relating to its Loan Charge.

The Loan Charge, first announced in 2016, is set to target those who used so-called disguised remuneration schemes to avoid tax as far back as 1999. It is slated to come into force in April 2019 and will aim to recover losses from the arrangements as contractors have to either settle their tax affairs or face penalties.

The Guardian reports that it has “rarely seen such a huge volume of angry, heartfelt letters from people who describe themselves as normal families whose lives are being destroyed, they say, by huge and unfair demands from HM Revenue & Customs.” One family, whose bill is more than £400,000, is owed by a 56-year-old who worked in IT for years and who says his only option now is bankruptcy.

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey commented, “There has been considerable concern raised about the loan charge by MPs and peers. With tens of thousands of people facing life-changing bills, it is vital that the loan charge is properly examined before it comes into effect on 5 April.”

Meanwhile, the Loan Charge Action Group have recently announced that its campaigners will appear in Westminster on 27 February to take part in a mass demonstration and lobby. They will protest and meet MPs to get the message across that the 2019 Loan Charge is “retrospective, unfair and will have disastrous consequences.”

Earlier this year, the government promised that it would review its tax avoidance crackdown on employees amid concerns that it could bankrupt contractors. It is slated to come into force in April 2019 and will aim to recover losses from the arrangements as contractors have to either settle their tax affairs or face penalties.

The HMRC has already contacted 40,000 people with loan charge demands, and in total it expects to pull in an extraordinary £3.2 billion in tax.

In its Loan Charge guide, the HMRC stated, “These loans are paid to people in such a way that means it’s unlikely that they’ll ever have to be repaid. In other words, the person receiving money from a loan scheme gets to keep it all. And they don’t pay any tax on this money, even though it’s clearly income. It’s highly unusual to receive your salary in loans and is clearly a method used to avoid paying tax.”