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?

I wonder if Rishi has photos from any of the Downing Street parties?

@cakeorwine
They have to pay tax at the UK rate on any monies brought into the UK but as the AC sometimes worked here for the same company, they could manage on their UK salary for a few weeks when here. It works ok for them as accomodation and flights are paid for in both countries.

Ms Murthy also has her own businesses, not just an income from shares in her father's companies. She's highly educated.

Haven't several of the businesses she has been involved with flopped or gone bust?

I don't know what the rules are regarding maintaining his status in the US - do you?

Yes - part of possessing a green card is the statement to say you plan to reside there permanently, file taxes there and the next step is US citizenship.

Just like you need to declare that the UK is not your permanent home when you tick the box and send in the justification for non dom status.

She pays tax on earnings made in India to India. That seems fair enough to me. She pays UK tax on her earnings in the UK. I was listening to a programme about this and changed my mind from being outraged to thinking she isn’t doing anything wrong. It’s not illegal and seems reasonable to me.

"She pays tax on earnings made in India to India."

Sorry, has this been confirmed? The last I read was she paid " international tax" - that could be Mauritius tax (super low), Caymans or any number of alternative tax havens.

@EsmaCannonball

Haven't several of the businesses she has been involved with flopped or gone bust?

Yes, including on which borrowed well over a million from the Future Fund set up by the Chancellor and another which went bust owning the tax man somewhere between .5-.75 million.

I think at least one of them was under Catamaran Ventures which is headquartered and declares profits in Bangalore (so no UK taxes on the profits and dividends for a non dom).

I wonder if Rishi has photos from any of the Downing Street parties?

I don't know about that but the Sunaks chose Allegra as their dc godparent. Someone who thought it was funny that Downing Street partied through lock down.
That gives a sense of their judgement and moral compass. The rest is all a continuation of the same.

@missmoon

Lots of people on here saying that she doesn’t need to pay taxes in the UK on her Indian income because she’s an Indian national. That’s not how it works!

She has to pay taxes on her worldwide income in the UK if she is normally resident in the UK, regardless of nationality. The only way to get out of this is by claiming “non-dom” status. The vast majority of Indian citizens in the UK pay taxes here and don’t have non-dom status. Non-dom status isn’t automatic, she would have had to apply for it, and provided proof that she isn’t normally resident in this country and has stronger links with India. She would have hard to show (for example) that she lives in India (or visits) a good part of the year, her children go to school there, she is planning to move back there in the near future, her links to India are stronger than her links to the UK, etc.

This seems a bit hard to square with the fact that her husband lives in Downing Street, is an MP, and wants to be prime minister! Also, her children presumably go to school here and not in India.

It’s relevant because (a) the family are saving a huge amount in tax, while the rest of us have to pay, and (b) her husband writes the rules on non-dom status and taxation! There is a massive conflict of interest.

Bumping this

Also the reality is worse than the DM headline - Rishi Sunak and his wife are actually both registered as residents of the United States, which they have used to help them claim non-dom status. Clearly a lie, an active choice, and nothing to do with his wife being Indian.

Well said @Leypt1 it's a disgrace. And the US so nothing to do with being Indian.

Sadly not surprised

@Notonthestairs

"She pays tax on earnings made in India to India."

Sorry, has this been confirmed? The last I read was she paid " international tax" - that could be Mauritius tax (super low), Caymans or any number of alternative tax havens.

That’s what was being said on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon.

C8H10N4O2 nailed it. We don’t need people running the U.K. who haven’t got skin in the game. Rishi might like the idea of being Chancellor or PM to feed the Rishi brand, but if his family has effectively been stating he doesn’t intend to live here in the future (Green Card, non Dom status of wife, etc) then it does raise questions about his suitability.

That’s what was being said on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon

By whom? An official statement from the Murty/Sunak household or one of the many "friends' busily running around crying "racism, sexism, nothing to see here " and general disinformation?

Every statement from Murty has carefully said that she pays "international" taxes where due. Since the wealth in India, like many countries where the super rich hold power, can route their earnings through tax vehicles in Mauritius et all its debatable that she pays anything significant in India.

Note also she isn't giving up her non dom status - that way her estate remains free of inheritance tax (to any government).

@Watchamocauli

She is legally correct. Thousands of people don’t pay tax on foreign earnings but you won’t go after them. Its her and Rishi’s skin colour that bothers everyone and their Money. You must read their backgrounds none were born with silver spoon like your previous PMs and Chancellors #RacistBritain

Is Rishi Sunak also married to all these other non-doms you mention? If he is, I think we should be told. If he isn't, stop embarrassing yourself.

Bbc saying Sunak is calling for an enquiry into the leak of his wife's tax arrangements.
How fucking arrogant and tone deaf. He's an elected politician who should have declared any of his family arrangements that may cause a conflict of interest for public record.
Why then ask for an enquiry to find out how it became known to the public?

We now have two people in arguably the most important roles in British society held by people who need to resign. Anyone who's supported them needs to accept their judgement is flawed and should also resign.
The British public deserve so much better than this.

Bbc saying Sunak is calling for an enquiry into the leak of his wife's tax arrangements.

Lmfao. I'm all for it, let him try and take as many others down with him as he can.

This just gets more intriguing by the the hour. A spokesperson for Sunak has said he is ordering a review to find the person who leaked his wife's tax status. It is a criminal offence to leak a person's tax status so says a source close to the Chancellor.

Could this turn out to be best neighbours from hell episode. I imagine Mrs Sunak will not be stepping foot in in their Downing Street pad ever again!

@mrshoho

This just gets more intriguing by the the hour. A spokesperson for Sunak has said he is ordering a review to find the person who leaked his wife's tax status. It is a criminal offence to leak a person's tax status so says a source close to the Chancellor.

Could this turn out to be best neighbours from hell episode. I imagine Mrs Sunak will not be stepping foot in in their Downing Street pad ever again!

I don't know who he pays for PR advice but he might want to check they are not taking bigger bungs from another equally entitled opponent.

The party is nothing if not savage if they think the dye is cast. They will cast him adrift to protect the hive.

The whole thing is looking extremely fishy. The fact that they are now apparently moving out of No.11 looks to me like they have a lot more to hide and are desperately trying to close the lid on things. I think there is way more to this than has been reported. The greed is just staggering.

It's definitely bye bye Rishi now, after the review, he might have been able to salvage his career before, but he'll be gone now.

We now have two people in arguably the most important roles in British society held by people who need to resign

Only the two?

@LoisLane66

She CANNOT bring those earnings or the interest earned, into the UK unless she pays tax on whatever the amount is. She pays correct tax here on earnings here. It's all above board. Her husband went into more detail than was requested when he explained her status. The only reason she is offering to pay tax on money earned abroad but not brought into the UK, is the hue and cry the general public have made over her status. Her father started his life in poverty and by dint of hard work has raised himself up. All Ms Murthy's monies are rightfully earned and properly taxed in the country where it's earned. Why do people have a problem with individuals who better their born position. I wish she hadn't caved in.

One of my family works in Dubai where they pay no tax but those earnings can't be brought or sent here without attracting tax.

Got it in one, tax in this country is insane. I'm all for a safety net but we also need to get everyone out working to support themselves.

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

Oh come on, both Murty's parents came from comfortably off middle class backgrounds and were university educated at a time when only the very privileged went to university.

The building of a giant company is sufficient achievement that it doesn't need mythologising by pretending the founders came from poverty.