H&F Council accused of tax-dodging

The Telegraph reports that our Council has a "medium to high risk" of having to pay the Inland Revenue substantial sums of money in tax that their controversial consultant Nick Johnson has dodged by making sure he is paid through a small company he set up for that purpose. 

Mr Johnson is being paid £710 per day to pursue the West Kensington estate demolition scheme against the massed ranks of people who live there.

The Telegraph quotes the Council's own confidential report which was prepared by accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers and seen by the BBC, which found that Mr Johnson's position meant he would normally be considered an "office holder" meaning that there was a "medium-to-high risk that there was a PAYE obligation" on the council.

Our Council of course dispute this, issuing furious denunciations every time it is reported. And yet, in the meantime, some of those same Conservatives have been furiously denouncing Labour candidate for Mayor Ken Livingstone for the heinous crime of, er, paying himself through a private company to dodge tax.

Unkinder observers than I might detect a whiff of hypocrisy.