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Double standards? 10:55 - Sep 5 with 2633 viewsGuthrum

The coals being poured upon Angela Rayner's head about her apparent stamp duty error, while Farage cheerfully uses sleight-of-hand tax avoidance schemes with barely a peep from many commentators. I appreciate the latter is legal, but also generally considered dubious and is similarly getting out of paying what is due to the country.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/04/angela-rayner-used-family-conve

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/05/nigel-farage-uses-private-compa

Good Lord! Whatever is it?
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Double standards? on 13:36 - Sep 5 with 772 viewsDJR

Double standards? on 12:59 - Sep 5 by bsw72

IR35 significantly reduced the benefits of contracting through a ltd company, was introduced in 2000. Rumour is that it was when the gvmt noticed how much tax money they were losing through contractors in the Tech space around Y2K consultancy work :-)

Not been huge changes in sole trader vs incorporated benefits since then, although the gvmt clamped down around definition of in and out of IR35 around 2016-17.


My understanding is that IR35 wouldn't have applied to me at the time I was self-employed.
[Post edited 5 Sep 13:56]
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Double standards? on 13:37 - Sep 5 with 762 viewsredrickstuhaart

Double standards? on 13:30 - Sep 5 by TractorWood

Would probably challenge it to be a genuine and understandable error. If you have complex affairs, you seek advice. She did not and chose to not pay the tax.


Nonsense. Evasion is deliberate. No suggestion of that here.
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Double standards? on 13:40 - Sep 5 with 737 viewsGuthrum

Double standards? on 13:13 - Sep 5 by SuperKieranMcKenna

Tax avoidance is legal, practiced by almost everyone (be that an ISA or pension payments). Even footballers setting themselves as a limited company to avoid PAYE rates is a form of avoidance. If Farage is avoiding tax, it’s distasteful but not illegal. If he’s evading it then hopefully he’ll be collared for it.

However there was possible implication in Rayner’s case that it was tax evasion (by not fully disclosing), rather than a tax efficient scheme (therefore illegal). It appears to have been incompetence however by not seeking appropriate professional advice. That she’s resigned from the post was the recommendation of the Ministerial Standards committee.

As much as I can’t stand Farage, I can’t see the equivalence - I suspect a huge percentage of MP’s engaged in tax avoidance schemes. I don’t agree with that but being a minister and the Deputy PM you rightly should be held to higher standards.
[Post edited 5 Sep 13:18]


Should someone who aspires to run the country be actively refusing to contribute to it? It's not a legal question, but a moral one.

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Double standards? on 13:50 - Sep 5 with 706 viewsSuperKieranMcKenna

Double standards? on 13:40 - Sep 5 by Guthrum

Should someone who aspires to run the country be actively refusing to contribute to it? It's not a legal question, but a moral one.


No they shouldn’t be avoiding tax - don’t disagree at all but MP’s are the ones that set themselves rules (so I’m not entirely surprised). But there’s many reason he shouldn’t be running the country!

I was simply challenging the implication that it surprising Rayner’s tax situation receives more media scrutiny than Farages. She (held) the second highest seat in the country - if I was a journalist I know which story I’d go for!
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Double standards? on 15:52 - Sep 5 with 561 viewsreusersfreekicks

Double standards? on 13:50 - Sep 5 by SuperKieranMcKenna

No they shouldn’t be avoiding tax - don’t disagree at all but MP’s are the ones that set themselves rules (so I’m not entirely surprised). But there’s many reason he shouldn’t be running the country!

I was simply challenging the implication that it surprising Rayner’s tax situation receives more media scrutiny than Farages. She (held) the second highest seat in the country - if I was a journalist I know which story I’d go for!


Depends who you work for in that scenario.
Plus Chancellor home secretary and foreign secretary are higher offices
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Double standards? on 15:58 - Sep 5 with 560 viewsnoggin

Double standards? on 11:56 - Sep 5 by textbackup

Simple question… why can’t they ALL just play by the rules that we do?


"We" don't though. For example, how many people buy something from abroad and ask the seller to send it as a "gift"? It's all tax evasion/avoidance.

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Double standards? on 16:11 - Sep 5 with 510 viewscharlie_lynton

This is just the start of it. When the truth comes out about the £162K she's trousered by flogging a house owned in trust, and sold at a market value twice as much as other houses in the street, it might be time to get a proper job to fund seaside houses, instead of the taxpayer.
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Double standards? on 16:13 - Sep 5 with 499 viewsnoggin

Double standards? on 16:11 - Sep 5 by charlie_lynton

This is just the start of it. When the truth comes out about the £162K she's trousered by flogging a house owned in trust, and sold at a market value twice as much as other houses in the street, it might be time to get a proper job to fund seaside houses, instead of the taxpayer.


You might want to provide evidence for this.

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Double standards? on 16:17 - Sep 5 with 479 viewsRyorry

Double standards? on 16:13 - Sep 5 by noggin

You might want to provide evidence for this.


Never mind, Phil was probably already getting bored by the international break

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Double standards? on 16:18 - Sep 5 with 470 viewsTractorWood

Double standards? on 13:37 - Sep 5 by redrickstuhaart

Nonsense. Evasion is deliberate. No suggestion of that here.


It's not nonsense. If you have had any dealings with HMRC through tax compliance or complex areas you would know ignorance is not an excuse.

'Oh, sorry i didn't know you need to pay CGT, so I didn't'.

I know that was then, but it could be again..
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Double standards? on 16:18 - Sep 5 with 469 viewsnoggin

Double standards? on 16:17 - Sep 5 by Ryorry

Never mind, Phil was probably already getting bored by the international break


He must dread these international breaks.

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Double standards? on 16:26 - Sep 5 with 431 viewsVaughan8

Double standards? on 16:18 - Sep 5 by TractorWood

It's not nonsense. If you have had any dealings with HMRC through tax compliance or complex areas you would know ignorance is not an excuse.

'Oh, sorry i didn't know you need to pay CGT, so I didn't'.


Yeah I don't think that comes under "reasonable excuse" haha
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Double standards? on 17:34 - Sep 5 with 344 viewsEdwardStone

Double standards? on 13:40 - Sep 5 by Guthrum

Should someone who aspires to run the country be actively refusing to contribute to it? It's not a legal question, but a moral one.


Also an intelligence question....

Running a country is a massively challenging task, so many options, so many competing priorities. One would need the brain the size of a planet to make a decent job of it.

Sorting the tax affairs of a house purchase is simple in comparison

If Rayner is not able to do the latter, how poor must she be at the former?
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Double standards? on 18:04 - Sep 5 with 276 viewsredrickstuhaart

Double standards? on 16:18 - Sep 5 by TractorWood

It's not nonsense. If you have had any dealings with HMRC through tax compliance or complex areas you would know ignorance is not an excuse.

'Oh, sorry i didn't know you need to pay CGT, so I didn't'.


Of course its nonsense. Ignorance is not an excuse. Being wrongly advised almost certainly is, though you may still get a penalty.

Neither of those things are evasion, which is a deliberate dishonest action with criminal sanctions. Stop disingenuously conflating.
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Double standards? on 18:59 - Sep 5 with 175 viewsreusersfreekicks

Double standards? on 17:34 - Sep 5 by EdwardStone

Also an intelligence question....

Running a country is a massively challenging task, so many options, so many competing priorities. One would need the brain the size of a planet to make a decent job of it.

Sorting the tax affairs of a house purchase is simple in comparison

If Rayner is not able to do the latter, how poor must she be at the former?


Maybe the requirements of the former got in the way of doing the latter prop
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Double standards? on 21:30 - Sep 5 with 44 viewsTractorWood

Double standards? on 18:04 - Sep 5 by redrickstuhaart

Of course its nonsense. Ignorance is not an excuse. Being wrongly advised almost certainly is, though you may still get a penalty.

Neither of those things are evasion, which is a deliberate dishonest action with criminal sanctions. Stop disingenuously conflating.


I'm absolutely not. You stated 'Just genuine and understandable error'.

The housing minister concluding that she didn't need to pay stamp duty on a house that wasn't her primary and only residence is tremendously questionable in any scenario.

I worked in legal for a decade and the number one rule is to not provide tax advice. To then not take tax discreet tax advice is ridiculous. Particularly given the emerging complexity of her affairs.

I see no logic for it being even vaguely justified as genuine or understandable.

From Sky:

Who did Ms Rayner get her advice from?

The cabinet minister did not initially name who she consulted but it has emerged conveyancing firm, Verrico and Associates, was one of the companies.

It has said its lawyers "never" gave Ms Rayner tax advice and were being made "scapegoats".

In a statement, managing director Joanna Verrico said: "We're not qualified to give advice on trust and tax matters and we advise clients to seek expert advice on these."

The founder of the small high street firm, based in Herne Bay, Kent, said it completed her stamp duty return "based on the figures and the information provided by Ms Rayner".

"We believe that we did everything correctly and in good faith. Everything was exactly as it should be.

"We probably are being made scapegoats for all this, and I have got the arrows stuck in my back to show it."

Sky News understands Ms Rayner consulted three people before buying the Hove flat - including two experts on the law around trusts.

However, it is not clear if they were experts in tax law.

In a thread on X, tax expert Dan Neidle wrote that if Ms Rayner did not consult the right lawyers then it could be considered carelessness on her part.
[Post edited 5 Sep 21:40]

I know that was then, but it could be again..
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Double standards? on 21:37 - Sep 5 with 28 viewsVaughan8

Double standards? on 18:04 - Sep 5 by redrickstuhaart

Of course its nonsense. Ignorance is not an excuse. Being wrongly advised almost certainly is, though you may still get a penalty.

Neither of those things are evasion, which is a deliberate dishonest action with criminal sanctions. Stop disingenuously conflating.


She was wrongly advised because she didn't disclose everything.

Do you really think a discussion didn't happen when she sold her 25% in the property to a trust. "Does this mean I owe no home for Stamp Duty"?

She's not thick, whether she's done it deliberately only she knows but the advice she was given was from the information they were given.
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