MP Angela Smith used chartered accountants to give her tax advice.

Mrs Smith used HW Fisher, a chartered accountancy firm which specialises in tax advice for MPs.

Expenses details just released show Mrs Smith received a national insurance rebate of £1,332 with the company acting on her behalf.

It also submitted an application for her to defer national insurance contributions for the financial years 2004/05 and 2005/06.

She then claimed the firm’s bills of £235 and £705 under her office expenses.

Basildon MP Mrs Smith is one of three south Essex MPs who claimed expenses to pay for tax advice.

Thurrock Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay, Tory Rayleigh MP Mark Francois and Mrs Smith are the latest MPs to be held to account for using office expenses to pay for help with filling in their tax returns.

Mrs Smith, a communities minister, used her office budget to pay a total of £1,833 to HW Fisher and Harlow-based accountants Gleiss Wallis Crisp. The latter firm handled her tax returns from 2004 to 2007.

London chartered accountancy firm HW Fisher has been used by dozens of Labour MPs and at least eight Cabinet members, including Chancellor Alistair Darling, who have all come under fire for claiming for help to complete tax returns.

Mrs Smith said the tax office had made an error while she was an MP and she had overpaid national insurance.

She added: “As far as I can recall, the only rebate I have ever had is for national insurance. My only job is as an MP, so this all relates to Parliamentary work and the accountancy fees have been taxed as a benefit in kind.”

She made it clear she changed from the London firm to the Essex one because it was cheaper.

The Parliamentary Green Book, which sets out the rules of expenses claims allows accountants’ fees to be claimed if the advice relates solely to work as an MP.

However, separate HM Revenue and Customs guidelines say such fees are not an allowable expense against tax.

Mr Mackinlay claimed £975 in 2007/08 also to pay HW Fisher. The bill describes “professional services in connection with your Parliamentary tax affairs”.

In the previous three years, the MP claimed £2,961 to pay four separate £740 bills from the firm. Details of the nature of these claims have been censored in the documents released to the public.

Carl Morris, spokesman for Mr Mackinlay, said his tax affairs all related to his Parliamentary duties and he had no outside business interests.

Rayleigh Tory MP Mr Francois twice claimed for tax advice and the total bill was £613.

He said: “I deliberately asked my accountant for invoices relating to my tax advice to be broken down between Parliamentary and personal elements and only ever claimed for the Parliamentary element. The personal part I have always paid myself.

“My point is I attempted to differentiate between the two and I have never expected the taxpayer to pay for the personal element of my tax return.”

Southend West MP David Amess has also claimed for using accountants. He uses Landau Morley chartered accountants, based in Wembley, and over four years had claimed £3,127 to get the firm to handle his self-assessment tax returns, calculate tax liability and correspond with the Inland Revenue.

* An earlier reference on this website wrongly suggested Mrs Smith had been unavailable for comment.

We would like to make it clear Mrs Smith responded following a call from the Echo