Business secretary Vince Cable has been fined for failing to pay up to £25,000 in VAT, it is claimed.
He has allegedly been forced to pay £500 for failing to pay tax on his freelance media work and book deals in 2009-10, the year before he joined the government.
Cable, 68, earned an estimated £192,000 from book deals, television appearances and newspaper columns during the two years before he became minister – on top of his MP’s salary of £65,738.
Aides of the Liberal Democrat, who has made several campaigns against tax evasion, told The Sun that he had done this “unknowingly”.
The Twickenham MP said in May last year that stopping businesses avoiding tax was “essential” and his personal priority.
He also wrote a newspaper article in 2009, criticising City bankers who try to avoid paying tax on their bonuses.
Under HMRC rules, if a person’s yearly turnover of VAT-liable services is above £73,000, they have to register for duty within 30 days.
Cable’s aides said the mistake was spotted by his accountants during his tax return last January, who had told HMRC officials and apologised for the “oversight”.
He was sent a bill for “less than £15,000” after a tax rebate on his charity donations was noted, which he is said to have paid by mid-February.
Cable received a penalty of £500 for late payment, rather than a full £1,000 fine, because it was settled quickly, said his spokesman.
The spokesman added: “All Vince’s tax affairs are above board, and he went out of his way to settle this quickly – in fact HMRC let him off 50% of the usual penalty.”
