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should not have escaped a fine for underpaying stamp duty on her seaside home, according to a Government expert in the department that investigated her.
The former Deputy Prime Minister announced last week that she had been 'exonerated' over the underpayment of stamp duty on the 800,000 home in Hove, though she has had to pay an extra 40,000 in duty on the property.
Ms Rayner's announcement at 6am on Thursday distracted attention from that day's Cabinet resignation by Health Secretary – a potential rival for leader of the party – in protest over the leadership of Sir .
launched its inquiry last September after it was revealed that she had paid 30,000 stamp duty for the apartment, rather than the 70,000 required on a second home.
Ms Rayner says that the investigators accepted that she had taken 'reasonable care' when she paid the lower sum.
But the whistleblower, who until recently worked in HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service, has expressed 'concern about the Angela Rayner situation' and told The Mail on Sunday: 'A penalty can be imposed for a careless error, a deliberate error or a deliberate error that is then concealed.
The maximum penalty is higher for deliberate errors than for careless errors and higher again if the deliberate error is concealed.
'Rayner has specifically said that she has been found not to have deliberately avoided the tax. I do not dispute this. On the known facts the error was not deliberate – it was careless.'
Ms Rayner was forced to resign...
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