Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty defends non dom tax status and blasts claims she’s a tax dodger
RISHI Sunak’s wife last night blasted claims she was a tax dodger.
Labour hit it out after it emerged Akshata Murty is resident in India for tax purposes.
Her father is one of India’s richest men through this firm Infosyss with Ms Murty holding a multi-million pound stake.
Last night the Treasury confirmed the Chancellor’s wife based her finances abroad but said Mr Sunak had declared so when he got the job.
And her spokeswoman hit out that she “is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home.
“India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously.
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“So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes.
“She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”
'UNFAIR' CRITICISM
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today said the criticism of her was "completely unfair".
He said Mr Sunak and his wife had been "completely transparent and there's no hint of any wrongdoing at all".
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And he added: "Her tax affairs are a matter for her. There's been a lot of malicious attacks on someone who's a private citizen."
Ms Murty will have had to apply to the UK tax authorities to claim her non-domiciled status and pay a fee.
Under current UK law this will cease to be available to her after 15 years.
Whilst a contributing factor to a domicile decision, someone’s citizenship isn’t a factor in where they’re tax resident - on the basis she lives in the UK, Ms Murty is tax resident here.
However, her current status as non-domiciled means she doesn’t pay UK tax on any income from outside of the country.