Lost deposit

My client runs a successful trading company. For many years he has been interested in local and national politics. With the elections being at a determined date last year he decided to “put his money where his mouth is” and put his name forward as an independent candidate in the parliamentary elections.

Like many other independents he was not elected. While he did manage to garner a respectable number of votes these did not amount to 5% of the electorate so he lost his £500 deposit. As I understand it the deposit was paid by a cheque drawn on his company’s bank account and the client has now asked whether this is tax-deductible. My initial response was that it was not on the basis that it would fail the “wholly and exclusively” test. But I then started to wonder whether there might have been circumstances...