After the #googletax deal for openness and transparency I've published my tax return today. Now it's Osborne's turn pic.twitter.com/Zrkecsk2M7

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) January 31, 2016

John McDonnell has published part of his tax return, declaring income of £61,575 in the year until April 2015, on which he paid £14,253 tax. Several eagle-eyed tweeters have pointed out that this is less than the £67,000 salary MPs were paid during this period. The discrepancy could possibly be explained by pension contributions, but the Shadow Chancellor’s team are in the Sunday Politics studio and aren’t responding to Guido’s texts. Sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation…

UPDATE: A chartered tax advisor gets in touch:

Either what he has published is a second job or he has been a numpty and put his MP earnings on the wrong page. MPs should use special pages called SA102MP for their MP earnings, not the normal employment pages. If he has used the wrong pages it doesn’t fill you with confidence about his competence to run the UK’s tax system!

So is it fakery or foolery from McDonnell?

UPDATE II: McDonnell now says he has published his “full tax return”, which was filled out by an accountant and can be viewed as a PDF here. Pension contributions do indeed account for the missing £5,000. Though where is his SA102MP form as required for MPs? HMRC say that form must be used if you were:

• a Member of Parliament (MP)
• a Minister in the House of Commons
• a Minister in the House of Lords We deal with MPs and Ministers tax records separately.

He still has until midnight if he has forgotten…