To think that surely Rayner has to go.

[Blankscreen]

Well well well.

So now it emerges that Rayner rearranged her property affairs and declared to HMRC that her new flat in Brighton is her main residence and saved £40k on the SDLT bill as a result.

She has then apparently declared to the local councils the complete opposite.

I'm sure slimeball Kier will defend and say it was perfectly legal blah blah blah.

Not to mention she has a grace and favour house funded by tax payers in London as her constituency office is so far away. Yet she 'lives' in Brighton - surely she could just commute that distance like may others do every day.

Surely she has to go.

Though to be clear, despite her very public decrying of it, tax avoidance is perfectly legal.

What has happened in this case is either a mistake, helpfully in her favour, or a deliberate attempt to reduce her tax by proving the wrong information. She says she was relying on advice. We don’t know if that’s correct, if it was from the Trusts lawyers or from hers. But the Trusts lawyers have no liability to her in a private capacity, only in her position as (if she is) a Trustee. And in the purchase of the flat in Brighton she was not acting in her capacity of Trustee.

I meant the tearful press interview not the circumstances

Yes Rayner happy to override their privacy to save their job.

She's done for. Cheerio Angela 👋

Just awful. Her poor ds.

Those crocodile tears/being caught out at the interview too . I wonder if someone will scream 'labour scum!' at her. Probably not because most people have social skills.

Agree
Its not tax
avoidance.

And she hasn’t - rightly - gone into her child’s specific disability. But it is relevant to show her intent - this wasn’t a trust set up to avoid her personal tax liability.

She had no right to disclose her ds had a disability at all. He is entitled to privacy.

It’s clear that you would rather go down with your beloved Labour, than admit to Rayner’s error/omission/wrongdoing.

That’s fine - its your prerogative.

Just bear in mind that these are extremely serious matters - a woman who is DPM, during a time of enormous uncertainty in the UK and globally. People are worried, people are struggling every day.

Now, ask yourself - is Rayner the person you want in the chair, at this time.

The answer from many of us is a resounding NO.

It's become very clear exactly the kind of person Rayner is today. Her political career must be over after this.

It’s clear that you would rather go down with your beloved Labour

Bit Alf Garnett, isn’t it?

It’s not necessary. Give them privacy. She wants to use it to garner sympathy.

Is that the best they could come up with over this last week

I am in the process of selling and buying, its my responsibility to complete the forms correctly and also to complete my tax forms correctly. Tax workings out are complex in many cases but the questions are clear around what is your residence, do you have any other properties etc

She has been clearly caught out

References to obsolete sitcoms wont wash, sorry.

Yes exactly. Its despicable to drag her son into it to save her own skin.
She's told us who she is, we should believe her.

Following another poster’s logic, had you screwed up, you would be at liberty to deploy an excuse - the more emotional, the better. The more remote, the better too.

HMRC act on "due care" if and its a big IF... Rayner took expert advice, disclosed all facts and acted on the advice, then she has taken due care, if as she has done, notifies HMRC as soon as made aware, they will also take this into consideration.

In HMRC’s view it is reasonable to expect a person who encounters a transaction or other event with which they are not familiar to take care to find out about the correct tax treatment or to seek appropriate advice

However, if you re right, she did this deliberately, then she should resign, as an MP too.

But for you and others to call her a tax dodger with zero evidence is just opportunism, thats for HMRC to call.

Damn I'm just too honest. If only I made mistakes I would have got out of paying capital gains tax

Is being dishonest a good enough excuse 🤔

As Rayner is belatedly having an attack of the ‘transparencies’ and over-sharing re her DC etc.

Why doesn’t she simply release the tax advice she received? Surely, that should corroborate her explanation, so we can all see that it was ‘an ‘onest mistake, guv’.

Yes i had to fill out similar, its very clear that any ownership interest in another property, means 2nd home stamp duty, however small.

However, she says she gave up 25% stake & cashed it in, so i assume this is where the "error" has occurred.

Living in a house, doesn't mean you have an interest in a property for SD purposes.

Whether she can publish the advice is another matter, the firm involved wont want that.

But Rayner has, on many occasions, called tax avoidance tax dodging. And said the public is furious about it. Yet here she is, dodging STLT which roughly equates to the amount of tax 6 or 7 people on the average income in the UK pay in income tax and NI in a year.

Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't....

Why not tie her to chair and throw her in a lake?

To be fair, with all this doom and gloom and talk of the IMF it is a bit like 1976 ;)

Why would you suggest such a thing? How odd.

I do agree that she’s damned though. This is a moment of danger for Starmer - normally he’s fully supportive, right up to the moment…he’s not.

AFAIK legal advice belongs to the client, not the lawyer. Waiving the confidentiality in the advice is in AR’s hands, I believe.

But, as I said upthread, I don’t like mobs and organised hate campaigns. That’s a left-wing habit we could go without.

The best thing for AR to do would be to keep her counsel on this (there’s a child involved), resign and do some good from the backbenches for the rest of her parliamentary career.