Next-up for the Telegraph: Danny Alexander

[Tezcatlipoca]

"Danny Alexander, new Treasury chief, avoided capital gains tax on house"

Originally Posted by The Daily Telegraph

The new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, avoided paying capital gains tax when he sold his taxpayer-funded second home at a profit, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Mr Alexander, who was appointed on Saturday after the resignation of fellow Liberal Democrat David Laws, designated the property as his second home for the purpose of claiming parliamentary expenses but described it to HM Revenue and Customs as his main home.

Last night Mr Alexander admitted that he took advantage of a loophole to legally avoid paying CGT on the sale of the south London property for £300,000 in June 2007.

The disclosure that he failed to pay CGT comes at a particularly sensitive time because the Coalition is planning to increase the rate of the tax for owners of second homes and buy-to-let properties in an emergency budget next month.

When Mr Alexander sold his flat, the top rate of CGT was 40 per cent. It has since dropped to 18 per cent but the Lib Dems are now pushing for it to be increased to 40 or even 50 per cent.

The Daily Telegraph is running a campaign calling on the Government to protect the savings of small investors and ordinary second-home owners from any rise in CGT.

The fact that Mr Alexander has become the second Lib Dem to face questions about his finances within three days has focused attention on whether the party leadership has properly audited the financial activities of its senior figures.

(snip)

Mr Alexander took advantage of a tax loophole that allows people to continue to tell the tax authorities for three years that a property is their main home even if they have bought another house – in Mr Alexander’s case in Scotland – which has become their “principal residence�.

However, this did not stop him telling the authorities at the House of Commons that the London property was his second home.

The three-year loophole was introduced to give people time to sell their homes during housing market downturns. However, the Lib Dems have previously criticised its capacity to be abused.

Last year, they attempted to change the law to reduce the period to six months unless people were genuinely struggling to sell their home after moving to another property. This was not the case for Mr Alexander.

Senior accountants last night likened Mr Alexander’s arrangements to those of Hazel Blears, the former Labour minister. Miss Blears was forced to repay money to HM Revenue and Customs after selling a property designated as her second home for parliamentary purposes, without paying CGT.

There is no suggestion that Mr Alexander has broken any tax laws.

(snip)

Oh dear...

tbh, despite being legal & within the rules, I think using this sort of loophole is worse than what David Laws did...(especially if it is similar to what Blears did).

Given the Lib Dem stance on CGT, & especially given Nick Clegg's criticism of MPs who avoided paying CGT, I think that Danny Alexander should pay it, even though what he did was legal.

Will he survive his new post?

I believe that it shows the motivation of the Telegraph quite clearly though, in my opinion... Yet another story they appear to have held back until the timing is just right to do the most damage to the Coalition... conveniently also at a time when the Telegraph is "running a campaign calling on the Government to protect the savings of small investors and ordinary second-home owners from any rise in CGT."

Take down one Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury... let him be replaced by another, & then try & take that next one down too... Just how many Lib Dem Chief Secretaries will the Treasury have before the Coalition falls & we have another General Election?

Regarding the part in the story where it says "The fact that Mr Alexander has become the second Lib Dem to face questions about his finances within three days has focused attention on whether the party leadership has properly audited the financial activities of its senior figures."

... Yes, they certainly have a point. Nick Clegg definitely should have made sure his MPs' expenses would hold up to scrutiny.

The mention of "the second Lib Dem to face questions about his finances within three days" does amuse me though, given that the reason it is "within three days" is purely due to the Telegraph itself...

[alferret]

Quite ironic really lol.

I wonder "if" this had come to light prior to the GE would it have given the Tories enough of an advantage that they wouldnt need to form a coalition.

I think that the Telegraph have information on maybe a few more people and that they are stringing it out just so that they can maximise their paper sales.

I wonder who's next? Shall we open a book?

[Chrysalis]

sorry but I think the telegraph are just embarassing themselves here.

clearly waiting for people to enter the limelight and then expose them as if they enjoy watching carnage. Also I find it ironic they picking out specific lib dem mp's.

Danny Alexander is a guy who understands that the IB/ESA system is now too harsh and it will be a real shame if he is forced down the gutter as well because of this.

clicking on this link they seem to think labour are still in power.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...inet-expenses/

looks like a lab/lib dem smear campaign to me.

Ok now i am getting a bit sick and tired of the telegraph clearly they have other agendas then just reporting for the public interest and if they continue this i would like to see some sanction imposed on them. Freedom of the press is of course an important cornerstone of our country but not if it means they can hold back information for the point of causing this kind of disruiption.

It was the people of this country that voted not the telegraph and they have no right to manipulate our system for their own agenda and personally i think the media has for too long in the UK behaved completely against the interest of us the public. Serving only their masters enough is enough either come out with everything you have on everyone and lets put this to rest for good or shut the hell up and let the country move on and function.

[Angua]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Ok now i am getting a bit sick and tired of the telegraph clearly they have other agendas then just reporting for the public interest and if they continue this i would like to see some sanction imposed on them. Freedom of the press is of course an important cornerstone of our country but not if it means they can hold back information for the point of causing this kind of disruiption.

It was the people of this country that voted not the telegraph and they have no right to manipulate our system for their own agenda and personally i think the media has for too long in the UK behaved completely against the interest of us the public. Serving only their masters enough is enough either come out with everything you have on everyone and lets put this to rest for good or shut the hell up and let the country move on and function.

Well said. It does seem highly targeted at the Lib Dem side of the coalition. One has to seriously question what information they may have on the Tories that they are deliberately keeping quiet.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Angua

Well said. It does seem highly targeted at the Lib Dem side of the coalition. One has to seriously question what information they may have on the Tories that they are deliberately keeping quiet.

Yes, it'll be interesting to see but of course they dished an awful lot of dirt on the Tories before the election so whatever bias they're supposed to have didn't prevent them from doing that.

[Lord Nikon]

Given how messed up the economy is, we NEED someone who is good at using loopholes to make money in order to get this country out of the pit it's in. Get him on the case working out how to make money out of europe is what I say.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Having read more about this since I started the thread, & thought about it more, I've changed my stance somewhat & do not consider what Mr Alexander did to have been such an issue.

I do think it is still wrong for him to be seen to have profited from using the expenses system to do the property up before selling it, however the CGT part of the story appears to be not much of a problem at all (apart from still being embarrassing for Nick Clegg, of course, given his & the party's stance on CGT...).

There is no way Mr Alexander can return any CGT not paid because, quite simply, it was never actually due. I'm not sure the Taxman takes donations from people who were not actually liable for tax?

It is not as if he told the expenses people one thing ("London = 2nd home") and HMRC another thing ("London = primary home")...

The property in London *was* actually his main residence before he became an MP.

After he became an MP, he bought a property in his constituency in Scotland, & designated that as his main residence & his London property as his second home, for the purpose of Parliamentary expenses.

However, as far as actual tax law was concerned when he later came to sell his London property, he quite simply was not liable for CGT on it, because it *had* been used as his main residence within the last three years. There was no dodging, no avoiding, it was simply that's what the law said.


Funnily, it also seems that Mr Alexander did nothing which the Telegraph does not advise its own readers of doing... Perhaps he had simply been reading this?

Telegraph - Home, sweet second home


However, I'm not sure that "Danny Alexander, new Treasury chief, follows Telegraph advice & avoids CGT" would have been such a good headline...

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Ok now i am getting a bit sick and tired of the telegraph clearly they have other agendas then just reporting for the public interest and if they continue this i would like to see some sanction imposed on them. Freedom of the press is of course an important cornerstone of our country but not if it means they can hold back information for the point of causing this kind of disruiption.

It was the people of this country that voted not the telegraph and they have no right to manipulate our system for their own agenda and personally i think the media has for too long in the UK behaved completely against the interest of us the public. Serving only their masters enough is enough either come out with everything you have on everyone and lets put this to rest for good or shut the hell up and let the country move on and function.

I agree, what they doing now is not in the public's interests.

Initially when they revealed expenses yes it was a good thing as it made us all aware of a problem, but the manner it is been done now targetting specific ministers who are doing a critical job when the country is in a mess is very wrong.

[punky]

You have to wonder who is in charge of MP shortlisting and the party whip in the Lib Dem HQ.

The Lib Dems campaign for honesty and transparency and you get David Laws lying to the public so he can claim money he wasn't supposed to.

The Lib Dems campaign against tax avoidance schemes and now you get Danny Alexander using a tax avoidance scheme.

What's next, a Lib Dem MP coming out for a FPTP system?

I never really expected the Lib Dems to be better than anyone despite them normally pretending they are. It does seem though when it comes to preaching and comes to doing they really aren't better than anyone else.

[Jimmy-J]

Government & Politicians eh'... All I have to say about this is

In tune to Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. "If you don't know them by now, you will never never never know them.. Oooohhhh Oooowahhoo!"