Dan Neidle was lounging by a lake with friends in July 2022 when the legal threat arrived. His younger son had just got his leg stuck in a ladder in the water, screaming in pain. But Neidle didn’t hear. He was staring at his phone, reading a message from Nadhim Zahawi’s lawyer. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer was threatening to sue him. For millions.
Neidle pressed ahead anyway. Six months later, Rishi Sunak sacked Zahawi after it turned out the tax lawyer had been right all along. The former Chancellor owed HMRC £3.7 million in capital gains tax and penalties. Zahawi had claimed his tax affairs were in order. They weren’t.
That’s Dan Neidle in a nutshell. A former magic circle lawyer turned tax justice campaigner who doesn’t back down when rich people send scary letters.
From Clifford Chance to Norfolk
Dan Neidle worked for 23 years at Clifford Chance, one of the world’s largest law firms. Was named head of tax for its London office last year. He got stupid money doing it, by his own admission. In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, he said he was “embarrassed at how hideously overpaid” he’d been.
Then in May 2022, he retired. Moved to Norfolk with his wife and two sons. The plan was to write nerdy tax policy pieces that maybe 200 people would read. Walk on beaches. Make chicken korma for his kids. Live the quiet life.
That lasted about five minutes. Instead, he founded Tax Policy Associates, a nonprofit think tank that goes after dodgy tax schemes. He’s got a network of about 50 lawyers and accountants who help him for free, often anonymously, because they genuinely want to fix what they think is wrong. Not something you’d expect from tax lawyers, but there you go.
The Zahawi Takedown
The Zahawi case made Neidle’s name. In April 2022, we learnt that Akshata Murty, wife of the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, was a non-dom. This basically means she didn’t pay UK tax on her enormous dividends from Infosys, the Indian tech business founded by her dad.
Murty claimed this was inevitable because she was Indian. Neidle called that “a disgrace” and flat out wrong. You have to actively claim non-dom status, he said.
Then he started looking at Zahawi. The Tory party chairman at the time. Turned out Zahawi owed HMRC millions. Zahawi’s lawyers issued menacing letters implying everything was fine and he wasn’t under investigation. And both of those claims proved to be false. Sunak fired him in January 2023.
Neidle would have been exposed to claims for millions had the litigation proceeded. He pushed on anyway. That takes either courage or stubbornness or both.
Going After Everyone Else
Dan Neidle hasn’t stopped since. He went after Michelle Mone and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, over PPE contracts during the pandemic. His investigation found Barrowman’s schemes misled investors and involved offshore companies to dodge taxes. BBC News and the Financial Times covered his findings.
In August 2024, he published a report accusing Green Jellyfish, a Norwich tax consultancy, of submitting fraudulent claims to the UK’s R&D tax credit scheme. HMRC raided their offices. Eleven directors and employees got arrested. The company shut down.
Turned out they’d been making dodgy claims for a butcher, a baker, and yes, an actual candlestick maker. Neidle said the R&D tax credit programme costs the UK billions in fraud.
He’s looked at the Post Office scandal, tax avoidance by private equity firms, and high marginal tax rates that punish people earning between £100,000 and £125,000. Effective tax rates hit 62% in that bracket because of how thresholds work. Proper mental.
For all this, Neidle won Investigation of the Year at the British Journalism Awards 2023. Got the Tolley’s award for Outstanding Contribution to Taxation. Named one of the 50 most influential people in global tax policy by International Tax Review in 2024. Not bad for a bloke who retired to eat duck fat hash browns in Norfolk.
The Dan Neidle Wealth Tax Debate
Here’s where it gets controversial. Neidle’s dead against wealth taxes. Reckons they don’t work. Almost every country that’s tried them has scrapped them because they raised hardly any money, hit the middle class more than the ultra-rich, and caused people to leave.
Dan Neidle Gary Stevenson debates have become a thing online. Stevenson is the former Citibank trader turned wealth inequality campaigner. He wants a 2% tax on assets over £10 million. Says it’ll raise £24 billion. Polling shows 75% of Brits support it.
Neidle thinks that’s rubbish. In a podcast appearance in August 2024, he argued wealth taxes historically fail. Switzerland’s the only exception, and they don’t tax income well anyway. He reckons it’s better to fix the holes in inheritance tax and capital gains tax, raise capital tax rates, close loopholes. Practical stuff rather than big flashy policies that sound good but don’t work.
This has made him enemies on the left. Tax campaigner Richard Murphy’s written multiple blog posts slamming Neidle’s proposals as neoliberal nonsense designed to protect the wealthy. Murphy reckons Neidle’s ideas perpetuate existing power structures. Neidle thinks Murphy’s living in fantasy land.
The thing is, Neidle’s not some right-wing Tory protecting his mates. He’s a Labour member. Served three years on the party’s National Constitutional Committee, their senior disciplinary body, from 2022 to 2025. He advises politicians from five different parties.
He’s part of the Scottish government’s Tax Advisory Forum. The man goes after tax dodgers for a living. He just doesn’t think wealth taxes are the answer.
What He Actually Wants
Neidle’s proposed reforms are technical and boring, which is probably why they don’t get much attention compared to Stevenson’s wealth tax campaign. But they’d make a real difference.
Fix the cliff edges in income tax where people face absurd marginal rates. Sort out capital gains tax properly. Close inheritance tax loopholes. Make HMRC actually prosecute aggressive tax avoidance and evasion instead of letting people get away with it. Tax windfall profits from oil and gas companies without the daft investment allowances the government added.
His criticism of current tax policy is brutal. He calls it “political theatre” rather than rational design. Says the system above £200,000 in earnings is “pure rabbit”. That’s not a compliment.
In a June 2024 podcast with the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dan Neidle talked about how taxes legally paid by businesses often fall on workers and consumers anyway. The economic incidence of taxation, it’s called. Makes you realise how little most people understand about how tax actually works.
The Personal Stuff Nobody Knows Much About
Neidle’s 52 now. Jewish. His dad is Professor Stephen Neidle, a pharmaceutical designer. His mum, Andrea, is a copywriter. He’s got two sons aged 10 and 12. Lives somewhere near Hunstanton, that sandy seaside town in west Norfolk where he recommends the duck fat hash browns.
People always search for Dan Neidle wife but there’s barely any information out there. He mentioned his wife in that New Statesman interview from March 2024, but no name. She’s the one who yelled when their son got stuck in the ladder while Neidle was reading Zahawi’s legal threat. That’s about all anyone knows.
Dan Neidle’s net worth is another question nobody can answer. He was head of tax at Clifford Chance. Those jobs pay ridiculous money. He’s said he earned enough to support his family on savings alone. He described himself as “stupidly fortunate”. But actual numbers? Not public.
What is clear is he donates all his fees from writing and speaking to charity. He does no commercial work to avoid conflicts of interest. All his work through Tax Policy Associates is nonprofit. That’s unusual for someone with his background.
Why Any of This Matters
Tax policy’s boring. Let’s be honest. Most people’s eyes glaze over when you mention capital gains or marginal rates or R&D tax credits. But this stuff affects everyone. When companies or rich individuals dodge taxes, everyone else pays more or gets worse public services. Simple as that.
Neidle’s using his expertise to hold powerful people accountable. The Zahawi case proved ministers can’t just lie about their tax affairs. The Green Jellyfish investigation showed HMRC will actually act on fraud if someone does the legwork. His work on the Post Office scandal added pressure to a situation that needed all the pressure it could get.
Yeah, he’s controversial. The left thinks he’s too soft on the wealthy. The right probably thinks he’s a troublemaker. He doesn’t seem bothered either way. Just keeps publishing reports, calling out dodgy schemes, advising policymakers, and occasionally recommending hash browns.
His Twitter handle is @DanNeidle if you fancy following his latest investigations. He’s also got a Substack called Tax Policy Associates, where he breaks down tax issues in plain English. Well, plain-ish English. It’s still tax.
The bloke retired to spend time with his family and somehow ended up bringing down a Chancellor, getting a tax consultancy shut down, and becoming one of the most influential voices in British tax policy. Not your typical retirement plan. But then Neidle’s not your typical retired lawyer. He’s the one who sees something dodgy and can’t help but investigate it, even when threatened with million-pound lawsuits.
That’s either admirable or slightly mad. Probably both.
