via Associated Press
UNITED KINGDOM – After heavy criticism of the millions saved in taxes his wealthy wife links the setbacks for British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, whose tax provisions this Saturday 9 April amid the crisis of the purchasing power†
Rishi Sunak has been accused of hypocrisy after admitting that until last year he had a US “green card” that granted him permanent resident status in the United States. United Stateswhere he filed tax returns while a British minister.
According to his spokesperson quoted by the BBC“He continued to use his green card to travel. When he first traveled to the United States as a minister, he spoke with the American authorities to make the right decision.” In October 2021, he waived this card.
The trouble started for the minister earlier this week when the press revealed that his wife Akshata Murty, an Indian billionaire whose wealth exceeds that of the Queen of England, had a privileged tax status that allowed her to pay no tax to his tax authorities. country. Majesty of his income received abroad (status known as “non-dom” for “non-domiciled”).
Lack of transparency
This statute was introduced in 1799 by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, to allow wealthy plantation owners in the colonies to protect the resulting income from the tax authorities. It now typically applies to foreign-born taxpayers who spend most of their time on UK soil but nevertheless consider their permanent residence to be abroad.
Taxpayers with “non-dom” status must apply for an exemption if their foreign income exceeds 2,000 pounds sterling (2,200 euros). Akshata Murty, an Indian national, had to pay £30,000 to continue taking advantage of his status.
When she announced Friday that she would be giving up her benefits so as not to be a “distraction” to her husband, Rishi Sunak has “tried several times to cover her tracks” regarding her family’s tax schemes, Labor MP Louise Haigh said. Saturday at the BBC microphone.
4/ I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I don’t want my tax status to be a distraction to my husband or affect my family.
For this reason, I no longer claim the tax deduction basis.
— Akshata Murty (@anmurty) Apr 9, 2022
The chancellor imposed tax hikes after tax increases, as he and his family take action to lower theirs.
And he tried to hide these facts from the British public.
The Tories think it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else. pic.twitter.com/2irvfcUogn
—Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) Apr 9, 2022
Akshata Murty has not broken any law, but “the problem is that the finance minister has not been transparent (…) about his wife’s tax status. He was not transparent about the fact that he green card in the United States and filed tax returns there. Not only when he was an MP, but also when he was finance minister,’ she noted.
The old fallen baby
Friday, the British newspaper the independent also revealed that Rishi Sunak was one of the beneficiaries of trusts in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands – two tax heaven– founded to manage his wife’s tax affairs.
According to a spokesman for the Sunak family, “no one in Akshata’s family is aware of the existence” of these trusts. “Polling my wife to get me is terrible,” the minister denounced in an interview with the tabloid The sun on Friday, adding that his wife, who is an Indian national, has “paid UK tax on every penny she earned” in that country.
Be that as it may, the cascading revelations about the minister and his wife are failing at a time when British households are being strangled by steep price increases.
Still a petty darling of Conservatives, the eloquent 41-year-old minister’s popularity plummeted after he announced aid measures deemed far from commensurate with the historic decline in purchasing power. At a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was embroiled in his affairs of “party gate”Organizing these parties while the country was in lockdown, Rishi Sunak was named as one of his possible replacements at 10 Downing Street.
See also on The HuffPost: Johnson Apologizes For Lockdown Downing Street Party
