Yesterday it was the Tories advising their top donors on how to avoid tax through a controversial “legacy” scheme. The story had considerable traction and unsurprisingly provoked considerable outrage among Labour MPs:
How many estates have reduced Inheritance Tax by leaving money to Conservative Party Foundation? Does PM regard it as tax avoidance scheme?
— Steve McCabe (@steve_mccabe) July 2, 2012
Guido can now reveal that the Labour Party offers an almost identical scheme to help its supporters dodge inheritance tax as well. Labour’s “Leave a Legacy” programme offers advice on three different methods of leaving money to the party, even going as far as to suggest clever a legalistic wording of donors’ wills in order to minimise tax liability:
Labour have led the way on bashing tax dodgers, with everyone from the shadow cabinet to the backbenches queuing up to stick the boot in. Starting with trigger-happy tweeter Steve McCabe, Guido wonders what they have to say about their own party being directly involved in a tax avoidance scheme. They call that red-handed…