Angela Rayner's £40k Stamp Duty Dodge: HMRC Finally Wakes Up and Opens Investigation

Morning, you lot still battling HMRC's helpline hell while the bigwigs play fast and loose with the rules. Spare a thought for the ordinary punter getting hammered for a late filing, because up in the gilded corridors of power, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has just been caught short-changing the taxman by a cool £40,000 on her swanky £800k seaside flat in Hove.

That's right – our Angela, the firebrand who spent years railing against Tory tax dodgers and calling positions "untenable" when the likes of Nadhim Zahawi got tangled with HMRC, has now got the Revenue sniffing around her own affairs. She bought the three-bed pad back in May 2025, paying a measly £30k in stamp duty by claiming it was her only gaff. But thanks to some fancy footwork with a family trust (set up for her disabled son, fair play on that front), complex "deeming provisions" meant she still counted as owning the old place. Result? She should have coughed up the higher second-home rate – £70k total.

Blames "inaccurate legal advice" from conveyancers who insist they never gave tax advice at all. Used HMRC's own online calculator, apparently. Sound familiar? It's the same shambolic system that spits out wrong answers for the rest of us, but when you're a minister, suddenly it's everyone else's fault.

Now HMRC's launched a proper probe – looking at whether it was "careless" (code for penalty time, potentially another £8k-£40k on top) or worse. Interest already ticking up at punishing rates. And this from the woman whose government is eyeing even higher property taxes while preaching about "closing the tax gap".

Hypocrisy on stilts. If this was a Tory, she'd be leading the baying pack. Instead, she's referring herself to the ethics watchdog, promising to pay up, and hoping it all blows over. Meanwhile, you and I get penalties for honest mistakes because we can't afford "expert counsel".

Tax does have to be taxing.
But for the elite, it seems optional until the spotlight hits.

Amazon "Cheer Yourself Up After Yet Another Politician Tax Scandal" Suggestions
(affiliate links – because retail therapy is the only therapy we plebs get)

• Seaside Getaway Candle – dream of Hove without the tax bill
• "Rules For Thee But Not For Me" Mug – perfect for your morning brew
• Stamp Duty Calculator Stress Ball – squeeze it hard
• Hypocrisy Detector – though it'd explode around Westminster
• Gin. Large bottle.

 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Children's Daycare Centre With ZERO Children

I assume that HMRC will be investigating this organisation?

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

85,000 Companies Registered at Shelton Street!

 

One address and 85,000 companies: Welcome to Shelton Street!

As per The Times according to Companies House, just over 22,000 new companies were incorporated at 71-75 Shelton Street last year: an average of almost 90 companies for each working day. 

 On the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) list of named tax avoidance schemes, promoters, enablers and suppliers, many of the 246 companies named are, or were, registered at one of the three mass registration addresses. Seventeen firms are tied to 71-75 Shelton Street.

Dan Neidle, the founder of Tax Policy Associates, a think tank, set up a fraud-finding tool this year designed to help uncover suspicious UK companies. Searching by address, mass registration addresses generate a high number of hits. At 71-75 Shelton Street, for example, there are 40 results.

HMRC need to take a look at this place! 

 HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Fujitsu Finally Gets the Boot: HMRC Dumps Scandal-Hit Giant for Netcompany on Trading Service

Morning, you tax-weary warriors. After what feels like an eternity of watching HMRC throw good money after bad into the black hole that is Fujitsu, the penny has finally dropped. Or rather, the contract has been ripped up.

The troubled Japanese IT behemoth – the very same outfit whose Horizon system wrongfully convicted hundreds of sub-postmasters and turned their lives into living nightmares – has been unceremoniously replaced by Danish firm Netcompany on HMRC’s vital Trading Service platform. That’s right: the system that handles the bulk of our import/export declarations, VAT on goods moving in and out, and a chunk of the customs revenue that keeps the lights on in Whitehall.

Fujitsu’s contract? Terminated. Netcompany steps in from 2026, with the transition already under way. HMRC says it’s part of a “strategic shift” to modernise and “reduce reliance on single suppliers”. Translation: “We’ve finally realised that sticking with a company whose software ruined thousands of innocent lives might not be the best look, especially when the Public Accounts Committee keeps asking awkward questions.”

Let’s be brutally honest: Fujitsu should have been shown the door years ago. The Horizon scandal alone – where faulty software led to prosecutions, bankruptcies, suicides, and a £1.3 billion compensation bill (so far) – should have been enough to blacklist them from any government contract. But no. HMRC kept the cheques rolling, pouring hundreds of millions into Fujitsu’s pockets while the rest of us dealt with glitchy online services and endless helpline holds.

This isn’t just a technical switch; it’s a long-overdue admission that outsourcing critical tax and customs systems to a firm with that track record was, frankly, insane. And the timing? Delicious. With the Post Office Horizon Inquiry still exposing fresh horrors almost weekly, HMRC quietly slipping Fujitsu out the back door is about as subtle as a bailiff at dawn.

Netcompany, for what it’s worth, comes with a cleaner slate and a reputation for delivering digital services on time and on budget (in Denmark, at least). Whether they can untangle the spaghetti of HMRC’s legacy systems remains to be seen, but at least they’re not carrying the baggage of wrongful convictions and cover-ups.

So, farewell Fujitsu – don’t let the door hit you on the way out. And good riddance to one of the most expensive, scandal-ridden outsourcing relationships in British public sector history.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But paying a fortune to a company that helped destroy lives? That’s just taking the piss.

Amazon “Celebrate the Fujitsu Exit” Suggestions
(affiliate links – because every small victory deserves a treat)

• Champagne Flutes – for toasting the end of an era
• Confetti Cannon – because this deserves fireworks
• “Good Riddance” Mug – fill with something stronger than tea
• Stress Ball shaped like a computer – squeeze it every time you remember Fujitsu
• “I Survived HMRC Outsourcing” T-shirt – limited edition, obviously

 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC's Sick Note Bonanza: Over Half a Million Days Off While You Wait an Hour on Hold

Hello you poor sods still trying to get through to HMRC without developing a stress-related condition of your own. Just when you thought the helpline hell, refund delays, and phantom penalty notices couldn't get any worse, along comes the latest Civil Service sickness absence data dump – quietly released on 16 December 2025, right before everyone buggers off for Christmas.

And guess what? The taxman’s own troops are leading the charge in the great British sickie stakes.

Fresh FOI figures show HMRC staff racked up a staggering 551,064 sick days between August 2024 and July 2025. That's over half a million working days lost – equivalent to every single one of their 66,000-odd employees taking more than eight days off sick each. Down slightly from the year before, mind, but still a whopping great hole in the workforce that's meant to be collecting your taxes and answering your calls.

While you're sitting on hold listening to that godawful panpipe version of Greensleeves for the umpteenth time, wondering why nobody picks up, spare a thought for the absent armies at HMRC. Phones ringing off the hook in empty offices, queries piling up like unpaid VAT returns, refunds taking two years because there's nobody there to process them. Coincidence? Pull the other one.

This isn't just a bad cold going round – it's a chronic case of "can't be arsed" compounded by generous paid sick leave policies that make the private sector look like Victorian workhouses. Nearly half of long-term absences across the Civil Service are now down to mental health – fair enough in many cases, but when it translates to deserted desks and degraded service for the rest of us, something stinks worse than an overdue self-assessment.

And remember, these are the same people who'll hammer you with penalties for filing a day late, while they swan off on full pay for weeks on end. You try telling HMRC you've got "stress" from dealing with their shambles – see how much sympathy that gets you.

No wonder customer service is in the toilet. No wonder small businesses get chased for imaginary billions. No wonder the backlog is biblical. When the workforce treats sick leave like extra holiday, the taxpayers foot the bill – in longer waits, higher errors, and more incompetence all round.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But thanks to HMRC's absentee champions, it's become a full-time job just trying to speak to someone who isn't "off sick" today.

Amazon "Coping With HMRC Helpline Hell" Suggestions
(affiliate links – because you'll need these while waiting for an adviser who might actually turn up)

• Premium Noise-Cancelling Headphones – drown out the hold music before you lose the will to live
• Stress Ball Set – squeeze HMRC's face (imaginary, of course)
• Giant Hourglass Timer – time your next one-hour wait accurately
• "Do Not Disturb – Dealing With HMRC" Door Sign – for when you're finally on the call
• Strong Coffee. Very strong.

 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC's Christmas Gift to Taxpayers: Endless Hold Music, Phantom Debts, and a £2.8 Billion Demand for the Local Chippy

Good evening, you beleaguered bunch. It's mid-December 2025, the fairy lights are up, the mince pies are out, and what's HMRC's seasonal offering? A fresh helping of utter shambles, served piping hot with a side of incompetence.

While the rest of us are trying to wrap presents and dodge office parties, taxpayers are still routinely clocking up an hour or more on hold just to speak to an adviser. That's right – in this age of AI chatbots and instant everything, our beloved Revenue can't manage to answer the bloody phone without turning it into an endurance test. Premium-rate hold music raking in the streams while you weep quietly into your spreadsheet.

Accountants? They're being quietly told not to chase outstanding queries because, let's face it, HMRC's backlog is longer than the queue for the January sales. "Don't poke the bear," seems to be the unofficial line, as if bombarding them with follow-ups might cause the whole creaking edifice to collapse.

Then there's the refunds. Overpaid your income tax? Congratulations – you might wait up to two years for HMRC to grudgingly hand it back. Interest-free loan to the Treasury, courtesy of you, the mug punter. They've got your money sitting pretty while you're scraping the barrel. Marvellous.

But the real cherry on this festering cake? Taxpayers being hounded for non-existent bills and penalties. Wrong tax codes, system glitches, pure fantasy debts – HMRC doesn't care. They'll slap on penalties, send in the debt collectors, and let you fight to prove you're innocent. And the pièce de résistance: one small business recently received a tax demand for £2.8 billion. Yes, billion with a B. Presumably for that corner shop that's been secretly running an offshore empire from behind the counter.

This isn't teething troubles. This is systemic rot. Years of underfunding, botched digital "transformations", and a deliberate push to make phoning them so painful you'll give up and go online – where half the services don't work anyway. The Public Accounts Committee called it out: degraded service to force digital uptake. HMRC denies it, of course, while quietly cutting off callers after 70 minutes like some sadistic game show.

How much longer are we going to tolerate this national embarrassment? The same outfit that demands perfection from us – first time, every time, or else penalties – can't answer a phone, process a refund, or issue a correct bill.

Tax does have to be taxing.

But under this lot at HMRC, it's become a full-blown torture chamber.

Amazon "Survival Kit for the HMRC Apocalypse" Suggestions
(affiliate links – because you'll need retail therapy after your next brown envelope)

• Noise-Cancelling Headphones – block out that endless Vivaldi loop
• Blood Pressure Monitor – essential monitoring during your hourly hold marathon
• Industrial Shredder – for when the phantom penalty notices pile up
• "Keep Calm and Appeal Everything" mug – fill with something strong
• Therapy Voucher – because dealing with HMRC is a recognised trauma

 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"