HM Revenue & Customs will be investigating whether some MPs have been able to get out of paying capital gains tax by knowingly making false claims on which property counts as their second home when selling it off. By changing the status of first and second homes, MPs are not only able to bump up the number of claims that they make, but they are able to reduce the amount of CGT that they have to pay when selling their second homes. CGT is not usually applied to first homes when being sold. This is another blow to MPs after last weeks' leak on parliamentary expenses published in the Daily Telegraph . The article suggested that MPs can claim for more allowances under their second home- which is actually their first home - to avoid tax. HMRC said: 'Once these declarations were made public, we began to examine them to ensure that MPs have paid the right tax. Avoidance of capital gains tax is just one of the issues that have arisen from these articles."