HMRC to probe MP relatives' pay

HM Revenue & Customs is said to be ‘champing at the bit’ to begin
investigating MPs who employ family members.

According to The Daily Mail, HMRC suspects MPs are paying family members
salaries that are not commensurate with work carried out in a bid to avoid tax
as they are able to deduct monies paid to staff from their taxable income.

Such a move, an echo of the row over ‘income shifting’ in family companies,
could see the MPs looked into,
the
paper said.

The Commons estimates committee is tonight expected to endorse plans to allow
NAO auditors to scrutinise MPs expenses.

Labour minister Phil Hope is the latest MP to be embroiled in the scandal,
after it was revealed he had employed both his son and daughter to work for him
during vacations.

In an article with The Mail on Sunday, Derek Conway, the Conservative MP who
came under fire for paying tens of thousands of pounds to his sons for research
work, hinted that the practice was widespread, and insisted he had done nothing
wrong.

‘I know many MPs with family members who have different names registered so
that they are not so obviously spotted,’ he claimed in the interview.

Further Reading:

Daily
Mail piece

Mail
on Sunday piece