Angela Rayner tax fail

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

But it’s ok because she was just badly advised.
I’ll remember that excuse next time I fill in my tax return.

But still confused about one can have 2 main homes?

Meanwhile.

home office loses bid to delay Epping councils legal challenge.

She's the deputy prime minister with a salary of £169,000. Good accountants and lawyers are not out of reach for her. Whatever detail we learn from the standards' commissioner, she has shown poor judgement at the very least in not taking steps to ensure her finances are squeaky clean, especially given the previous media storm about the sale of the council house she bought under right to buy.

You're incorrect. The very fact that she's not only HNW but also a prominent PEP would mean that any financial or legal company dealing with her is covered by extra layers of regulation relating to KYC and anybody dealing with her would recognise that instantly.

I suppose a valid question is -

Would you trust a person who is unable to organise their tax affairs, with discharging their duties as DPM?

Remember, in the event Starmer was incapacitated, she could be acting PM.

A sobering thought, perhaps.

Evidently viral as I just received it.

volume down may I recommend.

https://x.com/addicted2newz/status/1963508801769795840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1963508801769795840%7Ctwgr%5E93ce9033c163c45e5a85dc09a28a091e04fc28b0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2F2025%2F09%2F04%2Fpolitics-latest-news-angela-rayner-tax-son-stamp-duty%2F

Behind a pay wall but even the Telegraphs tax expert didn't know about what has caught out Rayner...perhaps you should work for them?

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/stamp-duty/tax-expert-didnt-know-about-rule-rayner-broke/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMmh0pleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB5YWVralJBZ0tPaU9KOVFnAR6DJkHoE14Z1iPkThe5gyvHLCIsi-IpQnW9KE9HiiW5d9ay1PRV1maZuaUDzA_aem_kZJ8oP3i0TKWkEOSSxD3rw

This was discussed earlier, thanks.

Otherwise not keen on becoming a journo - it doesn’t pay enough, for one thing.

Perhaps the journo should act for Ange in future.

All factually incorrect, as has been pointed out.

The writer is a tax accountant, not a journalist.

Perhaps he already has?

He isn't a journalist, he is a tax expert, as is an ex and he says similar.

But your office all knew.....

Wrong.

Mike Warburton is a retired accountant and writes a weekly tax column for Telegraph Money.

Wrong.

Mike Warburton is a retired accountant and writes a weekly tax column for Telegraph Money.

This is going to sound like a very small violin being played, but £169k, while a lot of money in isolation, isn’t really much in the world of HNW individuals who’d be happy to spend £10k or £20k on decent advice. At best £169k gets you, what, £8k a month post tax?

And the problem I expect she faced is a lot of smaller and cheaper law and tax firms won’t touch her because of the onerous requirements they’d face as a result of her position. So she’s left with the expensive firms by default. And I expect therefore didn’t actually take any proper advice.

Right.

He was a partner at Grant Thornton. That makes him an accountant, not a journalist.

Is not so much that she may or may not have done something wrong, it's the hypocrisy. She was very quick to call out Tories for their tax issues, but now she's joined the gravy train. As the Housing Minister she should have known better, but let's not pretend there's anyone of any calibre in Starmer's government, except maybe Wes Streeting.

I take the point about her salary not being stellar. It doesn't exonerate her though. She earns enough to hire decent advisers and her property portfolio is not at Jeremy Hunt levels.

past tense and was tax his area?

It was. His Telegraph biog describes him as tax director. They let him write about tax because that's his expertise.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has taken £372k+ from donors linked to private healthcare since 2015 — including £167k in just the past 2 years. Major backers include hedge fund investors in healthcare stocks, NHS staff agencies, and private health advisers.

not convinced he was that good if he failed to understand tax law.

No, but I think Jeremy Hunt understands enough to take the correct advice and is sensible enough to pay for it.

The accusation levied at him was he’d taken advantage of a ‘loophole’ (one of Angela’s other favourite soundbites, like tax dodging) to save SDLT. But the reality he just followed the SDLT 6+ rules as they were set out. It was not possible for him to pay more SDLT without making a false declaration.

Furthermore, as I recall, the reason the 6+ rule was in place was to encourage the supply of more rental property to the market, to improve the availability of rental properties for tenants. Though, subsequent Tory and Labour vilification of landlords hhas countered that and reduced the supply of rental property, driving up rents

The fact is she probably didnt ask “what tax should I pay” but “how can I get away with not paying the tax”.

in my view this is very hypocritical of her. The trust in her is gone.

He was good enough to become a partner in an established and well regarded firm of accountants. The point he is making in the article is that the tax system is in need of reform and that any of us could make a mistake. The reference to Angela Rayner is just because she's the news hook.

He's a retired accountant, now paid as a weekly writer for a newspaper; I’d probably class that as being a journalist.

She blamed bad advice. It’s unlikely that happened.