How are the mighty fallen? A hard lesson learnt

Angela Rayner, elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government by Sir Keir Starmer on his appointment as Prime Minister, resigned after she was found to have breached the Ministerial Code in relation to Stamp Duty Land Tax.  Not the most heinous of crimes perhaps but it is not a good look for the minister responsible for housing to be found to have underpaid a tax on houses!

Her fall from grace was not so much due to her failure to understand the intricacies of schedule 4ZA of the Finance Act 2003 – as can be guessed from the numbering schedule 4ZA was not part of the original act of parliament but results from insertions and amendments made by the Finance Act 2016 and Stamp Duty Land Tax Temporary Relief) Acts of 2020 and 2023 – but in not heeding the advice of her lawyers to seek specialist tax advice.  Lawyers specialising in both conveyancing and trust work advised her to seek such advice but she appears not to have done so until the question was picked up by the media and, despite then being told that the tax had been underpaid and agreeing to pay the shortfall, this was not to save her positions in government.

Stamp Duty on the purchase of land originated as a temporary measure in 1694 to fund the war against France. It was a fixed levy on the paperwork need to transfer the legal title of the land which had to be “stamped” as well as other assets such as shares.  The fixed rate was changed to one referencing land values in 1808.

In 2003, with the abolition of the need to “stamp” documents, Stamp Duty Land Tax was brought in which, crucially to the Angela Rayner case, included the requirement for self assessment by the purchaser of their tax liability.

Current rates as of September 2025

SDLT is a stepped levy with current rates being:

From April 2016, and additional rate of tax was levied on purchases which resulted in the buyer owning or being deemed to own more than one residential property.  Originally this was an extra 3% on each of the rates, increased by the government of which Angela Rayner was then a part to 5% from October 2024.

When Ms Rayner purchased a property in Hove in May 2025 it is reported that she had previously sold her part interest in a property in Manchester to the other part owner, a trust in favour of her disabled son.  Some of the reporting of this case was around whether or not the property in Manchester was her principal residence but while this would be relevant for Council Tax and Capital Gains Tax it is irrelevant for Stamp Duty Land Tax.  On the face of it, Ms Rayner had only one interest in land, the interest in the new property in Hove, and so her conveyancing advisers calculated the self assessed tax on her behalf, ignoring the 5% additional rate as being not relevant.  They did though apparently advise that specialist tax advice should be sought.

Let’s go back to the words in bold and italics above “or being deemed to own” and to Schedule 4ZA of the Finance Act 2003.  Section 12 covers the situation where a child, as beneficiary of a trust, would be treated as the owner of an interest in land and states that the parent of the child is treated as the owner of the property rather than the child i.e. the parent is deemed to hold the interest.  As the Manchester property was owned by a trust for the benefit of her child, Ms Rayner was therefore deemed to have an interest in that property and so the purchase of the Hove flat was an additional interest subject to the 5% additional rate.

Again, it is reported that Ms Rayner took advice from specialist trust lawyers but there is a difference between trust law and the interaction of trust and tax law which it appears was not picked up.

Though most of us are never likely to be Cabinet Ministers, we can all be caught out by the intricacies of the UK tax code and if there can be said to be a moral to the story of the fall of Ms Rayner it is that, especially with most taxes being the subject of self assessment, specialist advice should always be sought.  We here at Anthony Gold have advisers on both trust and tax law and are well placed to help you fulfil your reporting obligations and pay the right amount of tax first time.

Please contact us with full details of your particular situation and we will be happy to have an initial consultation to see how we can help you.

Contact us on 020 7940 4060 or send us an email at mail@anthonygold.co.uk.