Levitt confesses to Capital Gains Tax-dodge

Tom Levitt has now publicly confessed to his 'legal' avoidance of capital gains tax:

When asked about the claims ... he confirmed that no tax was paid on the sale

Two local newspapers have decided to take up the exclusive story about Tom Levitt's tax affairs that was broken on this website last Sunday and continued on Monday. There are significant - and contradictory - differences between each story.

So let's start with the contradictions. In the Buxton Advertiser, Levitt is apparently quoted as saying that our allegation that he was able to avoid capital gains tax "is not true" whilst the article in the Glossop Advertiser reveals the quote to actually be a press release which lazy journalists in the Buxton paper - seemingly with a political axe to grind - have decided to 'cut and paste' to suit their story. Here's the same phrase appearing in the (much better) Advertiser story (emphasis added):

The innuendo and implication in the poisonous stories currently circulating is that I was involved in something underhand. This is not true and I resent this...

See how the meaning has been changed?

The Buxton Advertiser is also badly off-target with the main thrust of our blog articles. It mentions that Legg had given Levitt a clean bill of health regarding 'flipping' - but we never accused Levitt of that in the first place. We're not sure the journalist knows what he's talking about.

Ultimately, Levitt is in denial about the main issue before not only him, but his party. That is that he chose to conceal the "legal" capital gains tax-dodge despite concerns raised by those in his party when the expenses scandal broke. This issue is tackled by neither newspaper, and the main focus is on the 'Legg refund'..

What is worse for High Peak Labour Party is that, so far, they have failed to bring this issue to the attention of the public in an open way. Although Councillor Anthony McKeown has criticised Levitt's openness regarding the Legg letter, we know that he knew about the capital gains tax-dodge, but did not speak out about it. And clearly, the atmosphere in the local Labour Party is poor, or we would not have people contacting us with the information. This 'invisible' show of public unity with Levitt by local Councillors may be 'party discipline', but it also means that are busy lashing themselves to the mast of Levitt's sinking ship.

No doubt there'll be more to say about these issues in due course.

Levitt was worried about capital gains tax in May 2009

Our research has discovered that Tom Levitt asked questions about MPs' expenses and capital gains tax in the House of Commons in May of this year, just as the whole expenses issue was breaking out into the open.

You may remember this debate as being the one where the Speaker at the time, Michael Martin, was later heavily criticised for his behaviour, especially the way he dealt with Kaye Hoey MP and David Winnick MP. Earlier in the debate, the MP for Bassetlaw, John Mann, had sought to clarify whether an amendment he had proposed in an earlier session regarding MPs expenses and capital gains tax declarations would be valid (emphasis added):

On 3 July 2008, amendment (f), which I proposed, was agreed unanimously and without dissent by the House. It removed the ability of Members of the House to designate separate homes as main homes for capital gains tax purposes as opposed to main homes for expenses.

Later in the same session, Tom Levitt made his only contribution to the debate with the following (see the video above):

Further to the point of order raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann), Mr. Speaker. Whatever the outcome of the discussions he has with the House of Commons Commission, is it your belief that any such change on the question of the nomination of homes could not be retrospective and therefore would not apply to any of the information currently in the public domain?

Now we wondered at the time exactly what the point of all this was. But because information has been given to us revealing that Levitt avoided capital gains tax, it all starts to add up. Levitt is clearly concerned that any changes in the rules which were retrospective would land him with a large bill, not to mention the embarrassment it would cause. What other reason would Levitt have for intervening in the debate in such a manner?

Exclusive: Tom Levitt the tax dodger

Some of you may have noticed stories in the press in the past few days referring to the fact that Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are investigating the tax affairs of 27 MPs.

You may also remember that other MPs - in particular James Purnell - have faced criticism for not paying capital gains tax (CGT) on the sale of properties purchased with expenses. The way this scam works is that an MP describes one home as their main residence to the HMRC in order to avoid paying CGT when it is sold, whilst at the same time describing it as their second home to the Parliamentary fees office in order to be able to claim on expenses for the mortgage payments prior to sale. All of this is entirely legal, but as we've pointed out before, that does not make it right.

Tonight, we can exclusively reveal that Tom Levitt has taken full advantage of the law in order to profit from a home he has bought and sold with taxpayers money. Sources have revealed to us that when Levitt sold his first London flat as an MP, he told the Revenue it was his main residence whilst telling the fees office it was his second home.

When the expenses scandal broke in May of this year, you may recall how adamant Levitt was* that he had never 'flipped' the designation of his first and second home, unlike MPs such as Hazel Blears and others who subsequently faced a storm of criticism in the press. He may have been telling the truth, but if our sources are right then this was merely a smokescreen to conceal the capital gains tax scam from the press and public.

Levitt's words on these matters are returning to haunt him. You may remember that when the Telegraph originally turned the spotlight on him in May, he said that "as a former member of the Standards and Privileges Committee, my conscience is clear". He may want to think again now he has been caught concealing the truth for months.

You would have thought that things couldn't look much worse for Levitt, but this revelation proves what slippery snake this individual really is. The truth must out, and he has a lot more explaining to do than he did this time last week.

*when this link no longer works, try this screen grab