Overview
- HMRC, which closed the inquiry on Thursday, ruled the higher second‑home stamp duty rate applied to Rayner’s £800,000 Hove flat and took no penalty after she paid about £40,000.
- The higher rate is a 3% surcharge charged when a buyer already owns another property, which HMRC said applied because of the way her previous home was held through a trust for her son.
- Tax lawyers including Dan Neidle and Sean Randall said the ‘not careless’ finding is hard to square with earlier advice to seek specialist tax input and with the ethics adviser’s prior view that she was careless.
- Opponents such as Alex Burghart urged Rayner to publish HMRC correspondence to show why no penalty was charged and to explain the basis for the reasonable‑care conclusion.
- New reporting says Rayner’s KC asked HMRC on Monday to close the case “as soon as possible” and a no‑penalty decision followed the next day, a speed critics contrasted with far longer stamp duty probes.