THE SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh has resolved her bankruptcy dispute with the taxman ahead of a hearing in open court.
A sequestration action against the Ochil & South Perthshire MP was due to call at Glasgow Sheriff Court on January 27, but was halted in private on Monday.
A sheriff had given her previously until January 23 “to show cause why sequestration should not be awarded”.
A liquidation action against a law firm formerly run by Ms Ahmed-Sheikh has also been settled.
A hearing involving Glasgow-based Hamilton Burns had been scheduled for today, but was also dismissed “in chambers” on December 20, the court service confirmed.
The SNP refused to say if Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who previously insisted she had no “outstanding personal tax liability whatsoever”, paid to end her dispute.
A solicitor before entering politics, Ms Ahmed-Sheikh was an equity partner in Hamilton Burns for five years before being elected in May 2015.
She then stopped working for the firm, but still declares a shareholding on her Commons register of interests.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) launched actions against her and the firm over unpaid bills late last year.
A liquidation petition lodged at Glasgow Sheriff Court showed HMRC was pursuing Hamilton Burns for £31,000 of unpaid PAYE, almost all of it incurred after May 2015.
HMRC also launched a sequestration action - the Scots term for bankruptcy - against Ms Ahmed-Sheikh as a former partner in the firm and as an individual.
If an MP is sequestrated they lose their seat if they fail to have the sequestration lifted within six months.
Ms Ahmed-Sheikh, 46, a former Tory who defected to the SNP as a protegee of Alex Salmond, Tweeted at the time: “Contrary to reports I have no outstanding personal tax liability whatsoever with HMRC, and have received no notification of any court action.”
Ms Ahmed-Sheikh’s former partner in Hamilton Burns, Niall Mickel, is the subject of a sequestration hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court today.
He and Ms Ahmed-Sheikh are the joint owners and landlords of two Glasgow flats bought in 2007 and 2008 for £245,500.
They also own a £300,000 holiday cottage in Kincraig in the Cairngorms together.
Mr Mickel, who is now a ski instructor in Switzerland, said he was unaware of the action until contacted by the Herald.
He said: “I can genuinely say I have no liability and neither does Tasmina, and neither does the former partnership. Quite why this thing is calling [in court] is beyond me.”
Asked how much the MP paid HMRC, an SNP spokesman said merely: “Ms Ahmed-Sheikh hasn't been served with any court papers on this matter, and doesn't expect to receive any."
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