So, Eric Illsley will be standing down as an MP, after being caught cheating on his expenses.  But shouldn't he also be turning himself in over his tax affairs?  His argument was that the lax regime existed in order to supplement the income of poor MPs.

It's a principle that all untaxed sources of income should be reported to HMRC, especially if HMRC isn't aware of them. Typically HMRC then recovers the tax on this source of income through the tax code.

So, if he really believed that the expenses were really income, he should have reported the "income" to HMRC.  Because he didn't do so, he's a tax cheat.

It's all very well for Labour MPs to thunder on about corporate and personal tax avoidance.  Are their own houses in order?

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Filed under: Politics, Taxation with tags eric illsley, hmrc, mps' expenses, tax evasion