In September 2022, HMRC wrote to the claimant companies (in accordance with FA 2022, s 86(5)) notifying the claimants that HMRC intended to publish certain information about the claimants concerning a tax avoidance scheme and inviting them to make representations within 30 days. Each claimant exercised its right to make representations. Subsequently, the claimants applied to the High Court for permission for judicial review of the defendant’s decision to list them under FA 2022, s 86. HMRC considered that the scheme created an artificial separation of part of the contractual remuneration paid by an employer to an employee, one part being salary and the other part being described as an ‘option payment’. The mechanism by which the separation supposedly produced a tax saving was that the ‘option payment’ element was purportedly not subject to employer deductions for income tax and National Insurance contributions from the option payment.  <>