Chancellor Rishi Sunak has referred himself to Baron Geidt, the prime minister’s adviser on ministers' interests, as he continues to face pressure over his family’s tax affairs.
Sunak has come under fire after it emerged that his wife, Akshata Murty, claims non-domicile tax status, meaning she has avoided paying an estimated £2.1 million per year in UK tax to HMRC according to the BBC.
Murty owns hundreds of millions of pounds worth of shares in her father’s Indian software firm, Infosys. She received £11.6 million from the company in dividend income last year.
In the wake of the row about her tax status, Murty announced last week that she would begin paying UK tax on her overseas earnings.
However, the Labour Party has insisted that Sunak still has questions to answer over whether he has properly declared all of his interests and whether he has received income from companies based in tax havens.
The Independent recently reported that Sunak was listed as a beneficiary in trusts based in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, which were created to manage Murty’s financial interests.
The chancellor is also known to have been a US green card holder until 2021, and opposition MPs have demanded that he explain whether he gained a financial advantage from filing US tax returns, too.
Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said that the chancellor ought to come clean on whether he had declared his wife’s tax status when taking “policy decisions” affecting those with non-domicile status, since it could amount to a “conflict of interest”.
Cooper added: “The fact that they have changed their tax arrangements now shows that they do recognise it's a problem - but they wouldn't have done that if this hadn't been public.”
Sunak has insisted that he declared his wife’s non-domicile tax status to the Cabinet Office when he was first appointed as a minister in 2018 and is confident that a review by the ethics adviser will clear him of any alleged wrongdoing.
The chancellor has also ordered an inquiry into how the Independent was able to acquire information regarding his family’s tax affairs.
Downing Street has denied reports that the leak came from members of its staff workforce.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
