Rishi's wife does not pay tax (millions!!) on dividends!

[FlowerArranger]

From today's Guardian :

Rishi Sunak’s multi-millionaire wife claims non-domicile status, it has emerged, which allows her to save millions of pounds in tax on dividends collected from her family’s IT business empire.

Akshata Murthy, who receives about £11.5m in annual dividends from her stake in the Indian IT services company Infosys, declares non-dom status, a scheme that allows people to avoid tax on foreign earnings.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/06/rishi-sunaks-wife-claims-non-domicile-status?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Anyone as outraged by this as I am? I mean what the actual fuck?

Please do some reading about Infosys and how it was started by a pretty poor couple who came from nothing in a country with no social security system, and how it has greatly helped reduce income disparity in India. They are not the usual run of billionaires. Akshata pays taxes towards the country that helped her parents build Infosys. As she should.

This sounds good to me, useful to get insight on background etc

To live here and spend their mega wealth in the UK as an attractive prospect which in turn brings money to the UK.

I thought the trickle down effect has proven to be false. But yes common in other countries that's why any policies to tax the global elite needs to be global!

@Rosehugger

She must be paying tax somewhere. If someone is clearly resident in the UK though and using our public services they should be paying tax here.

She will be subject to uk tax on her uk income.

If she has already lived here 7 years and after 15 years will have to pay tax here and in meanwhile she is paying tax in India, I think this is fair enough. I am more concerned that Sunak is not a good chancellor tbh. He seems clueless about how most people are struggling to live. He is holding money back in reserve when he would do better to use it to cut taxes or raise personal levels people start to pay at up to £13,500. Take tax off energy bills which was supposed to be a benefit of Brexit. He needs to wise up.

Why should UK coffers gain the most from such a large estate and not India?

Where does she live? Seems a simple way to figure it out.

wasn't this the tax loophole that Osbourne tried to close?

It was yes.

Interesting thing I’ve just heard on the radio, it costs £30k a year to retain registered non-dom status. There’s a lot of effort and expense involved in choosing this status it appears.

@cyclamenqueen

Well she’s only doing what she’s entitled to , she’s Indian nor British and has retained her Indian domicile so presumably she pays tax in India .

I don’t think it’s very appropriate but I actually think it’s worse that he’s jetted off for Easter to his flat in Santa Monica and that presumably his children are at expensive London schools whilst he as Chancellor makes decisions about funding state schools.

In general I don’t think being rich should preclude you from government office however you have yo understand that that comes with responsibility. rishi isn’t just rich he’s in another world rich and he seems unable to see or understand how this is relevant to being in high office.

I'm no fan of Sunak's but the press reported he was jetting off for Easter last week whilst also posting pictures of him at a hospital yesterday.

@MarshaBradyo

Please do some reading about Infosys and how it was started by a pretty poor couple who came from nothing in a country with no social security system, and how it has greatly helped reduce income disparity in India. They are not the usual run of billionaires. Akshata pays taxes towards the country that helped her parents build Infosys. As she should.

This sounds good to me, useful to get insight on background etc

I think second and third generation inheritors of wealth are often so much flashier and perhaps more entitled. I have been to the house of the co-founder of Infosys ( not Akshata's dad, another guy who is equally rich) in Bangalore. Honestly, it's so ordinary. Worse than the houses of most ordinary British people. No garden or pool, basic rexine sofas, cheap fittings, mosaic floors, extremely low key in every way. They must be hiding their money very well! Akshata's mother is famous for wearing saris that cost less than 10 quid. The first generation of founders are extremely low key; not so the Sunaks!

I am not defending billionaires but Akshata's dad Narayan Murthy really did create the Indian middle class in so many ways, by creating jobs out of nowhere. So many of my family work for Infosys and have been raised from poverty.

I wish Akshata had not married fishy Rishi and married some nice Labour chap:)

Has the trickle down effect of wealth been disproven or does it exist like a warm feeling flowing down your shoulder with a wealthy person behind you passing their wealth on??

Akshata's dad Narayan Murthy really did create the Indian middle class in so many ways - create or enlarge?

Is anyone surprised by this?

I do everything I can to lower my tax burden - why should she be any different? She’s not breaking the law. Hating on people just because they’re rich is pathetic. She’s committed no crime and she is a successful wealthy woman who works within the law. I have no problem with that.

@Cornettoninja

Why should UK coffers gain the most from such a large estate and not India?

Where does she live? Seems a simple way to figure it out.

wasn't this the tax loophole that Osbourne tried to close?

It was yes.

Interesting thing I’ve just heard on the radio, it costs £30k a year to retain registered non-dom status. There’s a lot of effort and expense involved in choosing this status it appears.

The £30k is the tax charge paid to Hmrc to claim remittance basis

Tory Britain

@Zilla1

Akshata's dad Narayan Murthy really did create the Indian middle class in so many ways - create or enlarge?

I missed out two words from there: in Bangalore! Along with the 1991 liberalisation. This is a useful article on Infosys. It was revolutionary in its time. Now of course like most large companies, it is probably evading tax somewhere. fiftytwo.in/story/source-code/

@cyclamenqueen

Well she’s only doing what she’s entitled to , she’s Indian nor British and has retained her Indian domicile so presumably she pays tax in India .

I don’t think it’s very appropriate but I actually think it’s worse that he’s jetted off for Easter to his flat in Santa Monica and that presumably his children are at expensive London schools whilst he as Chancellor makes decisions about funding state schools.

In general I don’t think being rich should preclude you from government office however you have yo understand that that comes with responsibility. rishi isn’t just rich he’s in another world rich and he seems unable to see or understand how this is relevant to being in high office.

@cyclamenqueen you put my disquiet about private education and politicians perfectly. How can they be trusted to get funding right on a system so far divorced from their experience?

why should she be any different?

Because she’s married to the chancellor of the exchequer who benefits from her wealth and also has a conflict of interest in policy making, policies that he can implement in the knowledge that his wife’s considerable income protects them from the impacts of. Take him out of the equation then people go back to talking about the loophole not the individual.

Cornettoninja
Where does she live? Seems a simple way to figure it out.

No, I don't think inheritance tax due on such a large estate should go to the UK if the person had only lived here for a relatively short period of time and they were not a UK citizen - unless that was their wish.

@JanisMoplin I'd still caveat with enlarge. Bangalore/Benglaruru always had a middle class unless you run with an heroically narrow definition. There've been private schools like Baldwin's there for a century? and the clientele will have included the middle class prior to Infosys' establishment. I'm not saying Bengalore's ICT transformation hasn't made an enormous difference to many though arguably the IITs have made a larger contribution though cause and effect can be difficult. Glad your families' fortunes have been transformed.

@Clavinova

Cornettoninja Where does she live? Seems a simple way to figure it out.

No, I don't think inheritance tax due on such a large estate should go to the UK if the person had only lived here for a relatively short period of time and they were not a UK citizen - unless that was their wish.

Fair enough. Tbh I answered with the current report in mind rather than considering inheritance taxes etc.

Bringing hypotheticals into it is slightly distracting since we don’t know yet where AS will spend the majority of her life but as I understand properties abroad are taken into consideration on death.

But that’s not the catalyst for the current attention is it?

Apologies, please ignore the typos

Entirely unconnected to the catalyst for this, who is Boris and Carrie's preferred successor?

loads of people business dont pay tax its the rules that need to change not the people abiding by them

Interesting thread here suggesting her non-dom status is incorrect (leaving aside morals)

twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1511964400978214912

To be fair to the Chancellor, it's not his job to determine UK tax policy, probably...

And pity the family who can only live in a property they will never own. And even if he gets a promotion and moves next door, he'll never own that. Perhaps a gofundme?