UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing calls to come clean on his family’s financial affairs after it emerged his wife benefits from a tax-saving scheme, the BBC reports.
Akshata Murty has non-dom status, meaning she does not have to pay UK tax on income earned abroad, while she earns money from shares in an Indian software giant founded by her billionaire father.
Her spokeswoman said she pays all tax due in the UK – but Britain’s Labour Party called for “complete transparency”.
Under the rules, people can be granted non-dom status if they live in the UK but intend to return to their home country.
Ms Murty is an Indian citizen and has retained family ties to India. The BBC understands she has said she would eventually like to return there.
If she lived in the UK for 15 years she would automatically lose her non-dom status, under the rules, but she has declined to say when it came into effect.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Sunak had “very serious questions to answer” about his family’s finances.
“If it now transpires that his wife has used schemes to reduce her tax, while he’s been increasing taxes on working people, that’s breathtaking hypocrisy,” said Sir Keir.
It “just goes to show just how out of touch this chancellor is” at a time when taxes were increasing for millions of workers, he added.
Labour has written to the chancellor demanding to know if he has benefited from Ms Murty’s tax status.
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