Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion is illegal. As the great Lord Clyde once said: “No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or otherwise, to so arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel into his stores.”
A view I completely agree with. We shouldn’t let the Inland Revenue, or HMRC as it now is, put a shovel into our stores. And no Tory ought ever to be ashamed of minimising his tax liability. But socialists follow a different creed.
This is why Angela Rayner is under the spotlight again this time over stamp duty and council tax.
The Deputy Prime Minister is facing scrutiny after buying a new property in Hove worth £800,000 and paying around £30,000 in stamp duty. But in January, before making that purchase, Ms Rayner may have removed her name from the deeds of her £650,000 Ashton family home avoiding a second home surcharge of up to £40,000.
‘It seems to be one of the most successful tax planning operations’
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GB NEWS
Ms Rayner said on Friday that she is now divorced from her ex-husband, with whom she bought the property.
By transferring legal ownership of the family home to him and into a trust for their children, she no longer owned another property, resulting in a significantly lower stamp duty bill.
Indeed, it is absolutely brilliant. It seems to be one of the most successful tax planning operations I’ve heard of recently and that’s something I support.
Not only has Angela Rayner minimised the stamp duty payable, she has also maximised the inheritance tax allowance on the transfer to her children.
If she pays market value to rent the house as her constituency property, there will be no “GROB” and the asset will fall outside her estate for death duties.
Ms Rayner, of course, insists that all her affairs have been conducted properly and within the rules. And that’s fine, that is the law of the land.
But let’s be clear: she is a socialist who supports higher taxes for everyone else. There’s nothing wrong with people wanting to keep their own money.
Most GB News viewers do. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to ensure the money you earn is spent on what you choose, not what the Government chooses.
The problem is that Angela Rayner and the Government she serves represent an ideology that wants to tax you more.
Indeed, her appetite for higher taxation was revealed earlier this year when she lobbied the Chancellor to increase property taxes, increase stamp duty, and tighten inheritance tax. A hat-trick of taxes which she herself has so adroitly avoided.
‘When you are part of a Government that wants to take more of everyone else’s, the hypocrisy is impossible to defend’
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PARachel Reeves also loves raising taxes. Just look at what happened when the Chancellor posted a video of her speaking to schoolchildren about Labour’s so-called plan for change.
When asked about taxation, she practically lit up. She looked as if she had just been offered a box of sweets, the excitement was palpable.
There is nothing wrong with wanting the Government to take as little of your money as possible.
But when you are part of a Government that wants to take more of everyone else’s, the hypocrisy is impossible to defend.