Whitehall health staff paid via 'limited companies' One Whitehall source said: "We cannot defend these arrangements, but it may be it is very common in Whitehall and this is just the tip of an iceberg." According to leaked internal documents, the health staff earned almost £4.2 million in one year for their work with the department. One contractor is said to have earned £273,375, while a further 19 officials were paid more than £100,000. The majority of the "limited companies" are registered as business and management consultancies. The arrangements would enable those involved to save thousands of pounds a year in income tax and National Insurance contributions because they would be taxed at the corporation tax rate of 21 per cent. They would not, however, have received pension payments, holiday pay or other benefits. In most cases, the fees were paid to companies that had listed the same address as the home address of the staff members, none of whom have been identified. The internal DoH payroll information, leaked to The Guardian, also show civil servants discussing how to cover up the arrangements. In response to questions from Gareth Thomas, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, in December, Simon Burns, the health minister, replied that no payments were made to civil servants through limited companies in lieu of salary. Mr Thomas said he would seek clarification from Andrew Lansely, the Health Secretary. On Wednesday night a DoH spokesman apologised for the misleading information. She said: "We can confirm that no civil servant who is an employee of the Department of Health is paid in this way. To this extent it was certainly not our intention to mislead anyone involved. We would be happy to clarify the situation in greater detail with anyone who asks and apologise for any misunderstanding involved. We are currently carrying out a full audit of such arrangements in line with the recently announced Treasury review of tax arrangements of public sector appointments. But in response to questions from The Daily Telegraph, the spokeswoman could not provide further information.