Keydata tax liability grows to £12m

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has made a £12 million tax claim against Keydata Investment Services, according to the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Keydata's tax liabilities relate to its promotion of products as ISA-eligible when they were not.

The FSA pushed Keydata into administration in July 2009 over the liability, then estimated to stand at around £5 million.

The regulator said that Keydata would have been unable to pay this claim. But former managing director of Keydata Stewart Ford has argued that a settlement could have been reached with HMRC.

The FSA confirmed that it had been investigating Keydata since December 2007 but was unaware of liquidity problems at Lifemark or that £103 million had been misappropriated from SLS Capital before Keydata went into administration. It added its investigation into Ford was complex but was now at an advanced stage.