A former north-east oil worker turned SNP MP has been accused of benefiting from a tax avoidance scheme.
Phil Boswell has been accused of being the latest culprit of “SNP hypocrisy” after it emerged he had taken part in a “constructed tax scheme” – despite earlier this year calling for the chancellor to close “tax avoidance schemes exploited by private equity and hedge fund managers”.
He is the third politician within the party to find himself embroiled in controversy in recent months.
Mr Boswell, who has previously worked in Aberdeen for oil giants BP and Shell, received an £18,308 interest-free loan from accounting firm Hyrax Resourcing for his work as a contracts manager for American energy company Phillips 66.
The loan, which is “repayable on demand”, is part of a scheme that has been likened to the one Jimmy Carr used in 2012.
And last night, it was described as “disreputable” by North East MSP Alex Johnstone, who insisted he should know better.
But the Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill MP’s loan – which was declared on his parliamentary register of financial interests – has been described as legal by taxpayer’s rights advocate group Taxpayer Scotland.
Eben Wilson, of the group, said: “It’s perfectly lawful, however even the chancellor says he doesn’t like it.
“They’re called constructed tax schemes, or creative accounting more colloquially.
“All I know about this scheme is that it is possible for a company to give a loan to an employee, or a director or somebody, and then use that loan as income on the premise that they will pay the loan back, but for some reason the loan never gets paid back.
“In any high value industry where people get paid a lot, you’re going to have this sort of issue by definition.
“Behaviour changes become even more prevalent the higher your tax rate, and the higher the pay in the industry, so it could be more likely for avoidance schemes to be used in the oil and gas industry.
“There’s a rule in political science that you have to keep legislation simple, because once people don’t understand it, other people come in and take advantage, and we all start playing on the lamb without really knowing we’re doing it.”
Last month, SNP MP Natalie McGarry was suspended from the SNP following a separate financial row over missing money from the Women for Independence Group she helped found, while in September the party’s Michelle Thomson left the SNP after she was accused of involvement in a property scandal.
Tory MSP Mr Johnstone said: “It’s a complex issue, and there are many people who have complicated tax arrangements designed to reduce their tax, which are legal and which are loopholes I wouldn’t necessarily wish to close – there’s many of them at work in the North Sea oil industry for example.”
However, he claimed this one was “disreputable” and added: “Anyone would know that it was on the edge of legality, and anyone who objected to such actions would be exposed as a hypocrite if they were found to have been using that technique themselves.
“There’s been a chain of SNP hypocrisy, and they’ve been caught out once again for complaining about something which in fact, they themselves as individuals have been involved in.”
An SNP spokeswoman said: “Phil Boswell has always made declarations on this register of interests in line with Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority guidelines and is committed to ending tax avoidance schemes.”
Mr Boswell could not be reached for comment last night, but in an earlier statement had said: “As clearly disclosed in my register of interests, under the conditions of my contract, and entirely at the discretion of my employer, I was entitled to this discretionary interest-free loan.
“After finding myself previously employed in such a contract, I decided to utilise my knowledge and experience in my new role as an MP to highlight treasury management issues.”