ShredderLivesOn
A few examples of some of the gross hypocrisy when it came to the press and certain political parties when it came to the tax affairs of Angela Rayner.
Rayner avoided £40,000 in stamp duty by not declaring that the luxury flat in Hove she bought was a second home.
She apparently believed that this was applicable, as she has no ownership stake in the house the father of her son lives in.
The other examples here were however deliberate tax avoidance. Starting with the Telegraph.
ShredderLivesOn
I suppose that would be an incredible advert for the Tories, if they could get Richard Desmond to appear.
"Bribes for the cooperation of cabinet officials were far cheaper and easier under the previous government.
That's why I'm voting Conservative."
Of course, the media only wants to talk about 'Honest Bob' about his latest attempt to paint himself as a hardcore flag shagger, where he looks like a Poundland version of Farage.
Although I'm probably being extremely unkind to Poundland.
ShredderLivesOn
Speaking of Farage, he's probably the most hypocritical when it comes to tax avoidance.
Farage has previously described tax avoiders as the "common enemy".
This would be the same Farage who on top of his £94,000 salary and expenses for the job of an MP (which he rarely does), also uses shell companies to receive his salary and dividends from GBeebies.
Meaning he avoids about £60,000 annually through paying corporation tax at 25%, rather than income tax at 40%.
ShredderLivesOn
The Tories seem to be trying to make some political capital out of it. Although they really shouldn't.
We all pretty much know that Kemi Badenoch is running down the clock on her leadership. As soon as MPs are able to submit letters to the 1922 Committee, she's gone.
The frontrunner to replace her is Robert 'Honest Bob' Jenrick.
The same 'Honest Bob' who when housing minister, unlawfully signed off on a development and helped Tory donor Richard Desmond avoid £45 million in tax.
ShredderLivesOn
This wasn't the only benefit of Desmond's dealings at a dinner party with 'Honest Bob'.
That same housing development saw Desmond having his obligation to build at least 35% of the property as affordable housing, reduced to 21%.
According to the London School of Economics, Desmond pocketed an extra £106 million as a result.
Desmond sent his gratitiude to the Tories in the form of a £12,000 donation, just weeks after 'Honest Bob' unlawfully signed off on his East London development.
ShredderLivesOn
The same day that the Telegraph ran their first piece about Rayner avoiding stamp duty, they also ran a guide on how to avoid paying tax written by their 'Senior Money Writer' Fran Ivens.
It was titled 'How to avoid tax on your second home', with the sub-headline reading 'From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net'.
Again, Rayner has just resigned over an error in her declarations to HMRC over stamp duty.
ShredderLivesOn
There's also Farage's own arrangements when it comes to stamp duty.
While he described Angela Rayner's tax error as "screaming entitlement", his financial arrangements to avoid stamp duty are now under scrutiny.
Farage boasted last year that he bought a house in his Clacton constituency. Only it's not in his name. It's in the name of his girlfriend.
That way Farage has also avoided paying £40,000 in stamp duty, as he owns multiple properties already. His portfolio is worth about £3 million.
ShredderLivesOn
Other earnings that make their way to Farage's shell company on top of his GormlessBampot News earnings, would be the income he receives to, er, advise people on how to avoid paying tax.
Farage has a paid consultancy gig with Nomad Capitalist.
A company that assists the super wealthy in obtaining second residencies and overseas citizenships, and advises them where to relocate to in order to avoid paying tax.
He's paid £40,000 per year for advising others on how to screw HMRC for much more.
ShredderLivesOn
Farage of course isn't the only high ranking member of Reform to have benefited from offshore tax havens.
His deputy leader Richard Tice is also a big fan of them.
ShredderLivesOn
Before he was using shell companies, Farage benefited from setting up a trust in an offshore tax haven.
The Dear Farage had placed his entire 33% stake in his company Farage Limited into a tax haven based on the Isle of Man.
Although he claims to have received no money, almost £1 million in dividends had been paid out to his brother Andrew. At a reduced tax rate of course.
Farage only held his hands up and called it 'a mistake' after his dealings had been exposed.
ShredderLivesOn
Speaking of offsetting, and having income not declared, we can look at the fact that Arron Banks was entirely funding him for several years after Brexit was won.
Paying rent and utility bills on a property Farage was living in to the tune of £13,000 per month. As well as providing Farage access to a brand new Land Rover Discovery, and a personal driver.
This was around the same time that Farage complained that he was "53, separated and skint” and said that “there’s no money in politics”.
ShredderLivesOn
This is just his income from GammonBox News. Which he is a minor stakeholder in, as well as a presenter.
It doesn't include his £189,000 from being a brand ambassador for gold bullion firm Bullion Direct.
Or his £4,000 per month for a Daily Telegraph column.
Or his income from the international speaking circuit.
It also doesn't take into consideration that by having his company paid instead of receiving money directly, he can have certain personal purchases offset as business expenses.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.