Government Minister's tax avoidance fully detailed.

The Sunday Times has done a brilliant and detailed job on uncovering the tax arrangements of the Culture Minister, Andy Burnham, who was so recently booed on mentioning the Prime Ministers name. The article is linked here. Read it in full to get a gruesome picture of the inner workings of the mind of this creature. If you lack the time or the stomach the following is the essential end result:

By claiming the windfall as a parliamentary expense, Burnham escaped capital gains tax at 40%, which would have cost him between £2,592 and £6,665, depending on whether he had used up his allowances for the year. His spokeswoman confirmed: “Because Andy used it as additional cost allowance he didn’t [pay capital gains tax].”