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MP claimed for tax advice

ST ALBANS MP Anne Main has been reimbursed the cost of filling in her tax return through her parliamentary expenses, expense details published on-line today reveal.

In January 2008 she claimed £558 including VAT as an accountancy bill for completing her self-assessment form.

She has also claimed £32 a month for hire of a Blackberry communication device, £881 for website maintenance, the cost of periodicals including The Times, The Guardian, The Sun, The Mail, the Spectator and The Economist, and £19.50 for the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

She has also claimed regular sums of £200 or £300 paid to the local Conservative Party branch, described as shared accommodation and support costs.

Comments(1)

TonyCr says...
10:51pm Fri 19 Jun 09

Technically Anne Main wasn't reimbursed. She asked the fees office to pay her accountants' bill for her personal self assessment inceom tax return dated 31 Jan 2008, twice: the first time on 29 Feb 2008 and the second time on 1 April. It's not clear whether her request was granted, but if it was it seems clear she should immediately reimburse the taxpayer. Not only has HMRC said that professional fees for MPs' personal tax returns are not tax deductible, but David Cameron also said last month that any Tory MPs who claimed for such expenses should immediately repay them.

What surprises me is that Mrs Main doesn't appear to have spent a couple of hours going through her expenses to make sure she hasn't inadvertently duplicated claims or claimed for items (such as personal tax return fees) she should not have done. Leastways, she's not volunteered this information
I've also noted that Mrs Main duplicated a claim for £1648 of Royal Mail leaflet distribution costs (inv. dated 22 Nov 2007, claimed on 10 Dec 07 and again on 21 Feb 08). I sincerely hope the fees office did not pay this twice.

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