MPs' expenses and tax

Every self-employed taxpayer will be smiling at the thought of the Inland Revenue doing unto MPs what MPs have done unto taxpayers for many years.....

HM Revenue and Customs has begun a fresh investigation into whether MPs could be liable for millions of pounds of unpaid tax for items they claimed on expenses, The Telegraph can disclose.

The Telegraph has disclosed how the parliamentary fees office allowed nine members of the Cabinet, including Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, to use publicly funded expenses to pay their accountants. Photo: PA

A senior tax inspector is understood to be overseeing an “open-ended” inquiry following disclosures in The Telegraph about the expenses claims of hundreds of MPs.

Details of claims for furnishings, household equipment and pot plants will be scrutinised to determine whether they should have been taxed as a benefit in kind.