Angela Rayner's tax affairs

[Ihateboris]

I was a few days late submitting my Tax Return due to being in hospital last year and as result I was charged £100 late filing penalty.

AIBU to think that Angela Rayner should have to pay interest and penalties for underpayment of Stamp Duty. This makes me so fucking angry.

Please read the full thread

She was informed a few days ago.

So yes, stupid comment about the offices not being open.

Do you thik Farage should not be investigated?

Oh come on, Rayner’s situation was genuinely very complex - stamp duty rules in her situation have very few experts even in HMRC.

There is no comparison with the rules on council tax on houseboats which has more variations than brick houses but is really not that complex (type of mooring was the main variable from memory).

She was told to get specialist tax advice and didn't bother. If she didn't do due diligence for her own affairs how could she be trusted to do it for the country?

That is your opinion. You are entitled to it, and you know what they say about opinions.

How do you know that Angela Rayner has not paid interest?

Did you ignore suggestions and recommendations to seek specialist tax advice?

Her conveyancer and a trusts lawyer had both told her standard rate applied – but both had explicitly said this was not specialist tax advice. One "suggested" she obtain specialist tax advice; the other "recommended" it. However Ms Rayner did not obtain tax advice.

What gets me is that she’s cleared by the tax man just right at the time she announces her leadership challenge. It absolutely stinks. God help us if we end up with her as PM.

I tell you what stinks and that’s HMRC taking eight months to deal with it.

She will definitely have had to pay interest.

Penalties for errors are connected to whether it was deliberate, careless or made in good faith. They can also be deferred. Penalties for errors are different to penalties for late filing - if you knew you had to file and you were late, you get a penalty. That’s a different situation to making a payment of tax but paying the wrong amount - in those circumstances HMRC make a judgment about your intentions and your behaviour.

HMRC is seriously understaffed at the moment, especially within the more 'niche' taxes like complex IHT and SDLT. They're also seriously under-resourced and not really prepared for the new MTD requirements and increasingly complex IHT legislation.

Everything is taking so much longer than it should. I've been trying to get them to send a client their final IHT calculation since August last year when they closed their enquiry, for example.

Even UTRs are taking longer than usual at the moment

HMRC and Zac Polanski’s Council are also Government? They are all part of the same system and problem!
Tax rules should never be so complicated that senior politicians can get them wrong. It is the job of senior politicians to change that!
They clearly choose not to because they know they can get out of it and the rest of us can’t.

Local government and government aren’t the same thing at all.

Another sister says she was only informed yesterday

Tax rules have to be complicated because life is complicated and so are people and their businesses.

Simplifying tax rules will only get you two places - either unnecessarily high and punitive or so open to avoidance and loop holes that you may as well not bother.

Tax is law. Law is complex by necessity.

Poster not sister

Do you know how much that would have cost? Definitely well into 4 figures, if not 5. Would you have bothered?

I think it's a bit of a 'rum deal' too but the answer lies in the words "tax avoidance" in the message because it's specifically that for which she hasn't received a penalty.

Doesn't necessarily mean she won't be paying any back tax plus interest with a little £100 fine chucked in.

Weeeellll don't you know! All civil servants in hoc to his Maj's government. One rule for us and another for "them"

Now we need the overvaluing of her northern home to be investigated and the theft of funds from her disabled sons estate.... Now that reeelllly stinks 💩

It’s a terrifying thought that someone as low calibre and stupid as Rayner may soon be in charge of running our country. The woman is an obvious narcissistic, half-wit whose only interest is herself.

Replacing Starmer with her would be going from bad to horrendous.

It will make the UK an absolute laughing stock (as if that isn’t the case already).

Do you honestly think it’s sheer coincidence that she’s just been cleared now? Just at the moment she launches her leadership challenge. I don’t.

If I was in her position of wanting to run the country yes I would. She's had a lot to say about other politicians who have played the system and been found out.

I would if she posts a copy of the letter showing the date

If you are going to do that, you need to extend that kind of intrusive disclosure to all politicians, not just the ones you don't like.

I don’t really understand the point - if there is no wrongdoing why would she pay fines/ interest? They are mutually exclusive.