Angela Rayner saved £40,000 in stamp duty on her new seaside flat as she told tax authorities it was her main home.
The Deputy Prime Minister is believed to have removed her name from the deeds of her house in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, a few weeks before buying an £800,000 seaside flat in Hove, East Sussex.
Disclosed by The Telegraph, the changes meant Ms Rayner would avoid paying £70,000 in stamp duty, which would have been applicable if the property in Hove was her second home.
Ms Rayner is thought to have paid £30,000 in stamp duty, saving her £40,000 in the process.
However, she also told Tameside Council in Manchester that her constituency house remains her primary residence and informed Brighton and Hove Council that her apartment there was a second home for council tax purposes.
While the changes are legal, the arrangement will raise questions over whether she has deliberately conducted her property affairs to pay less stamp duty and council tax.
An additional payment on stamp duty for second home owners was introduced by the previous Conservative Government in 2016.
Last October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased stamp duty in a bid to target the wealthy and boost revenue for the Treasury.
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Angela Rayner is thought to have saved £40,000
| PAThe Tories yesterday evening initiated a legal process to have Ms Rayner removed off the electoral roll in Ashton-under-Lyne on the basis that she does not "meet the legal tests for living there".
They claim that the electoral registrations are unlawful based on election law and case law.
While MPs and students are allowed to have two residences, the party says there is no precedent for someone to have three if they do not actually live at the third.
A spokesman for Ms Rayner said: "The Deputy Prime Minister paid the correct duty owed on the purchase, entirely properly and in line with all relevant requirements. Any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis."
At the weekend, sources close to Ms Rayner insisted that the constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne is her "primary residence" for council tax purposes.
This means she avoids council tax on a second home, her grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty House, central London.
Sources said she had followed all advice, complied with longstanding rules, and paid all relevant and required taxes.
Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake accused Ms Rayner of wanting "higher taxes on family homes, but doesn't want to pay them herself".
Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake accused Ms Rayner of being a 'lawbreaker'
| PAHe said: "As the minister in charge of election law and council tax, 'three votes Rayner' cannot be a law-maker and a law-breaker.
"We are calling on the council to strike her from the electoral roll to safeguard the integrity of elections, and remove the fig leaf she is using to avoid paying council tax."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage delivered his verdict, saying: "Isn't it funny that the residence that Angela Rayner is living in London is now coming under criticism from James Cleverly?
"He wasn't complaining when Michael Gove was living there. So, it's just party politics. If Angela Rayner had been tremendously successful in business and managed to acquire a property portfolio and done it properly, then jolly good luck to her.
"This whole sort of hair shirt approach, most of the press want politicians in sackcloth and ashes, would like all of us to be vegan and give up drinking. Well, it's not happening here."