… when the Chancellor of the Exchequer needs to hire accountants to work out how much tax he should be paying. Of all people, you would have thought that the Chancellor would understand the tax rules and be able to work out his own tax burden!

It shows that:

• The tax system is too complicated, and/or
• The Chancellor doesn’t under the tax system.

Neither are exactly good for Darling (or Brown)!

For what it’s worth, I can’t see that much of a problem with these Cabinet ministers claiming for tax accounting – they do, after all, have to manage their own parliamentary office tax returns as well as their own – and run a major government department as well.

Since the cost for this is just £11,000 for nine Cabinet ministers, it’s pretty good value really. I’d rather they spent their time doing their job than struggling over their tax returns – even though I’d rather Labour weren’t in government at all!