Tax shelter protecting a politician in France of the time (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
stamp duty
'tax' is the definition.
(stamp duty is a type of tax)
'shelter protecting a politician in france of the time' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'politician' could be 'mp' (Member of Parliament) and 'mp' is found in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
'time' could be 't' (abbreviation) and 't' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stamp duty that I've seen before include "Kind of tax as on house purchase - or letter post?" , "Tax receipted by affixing paper seal to deed" , "House-buying tax" , "House purchase levy" , "Tax paid on legal documents" .)