THE Prime Minister has published his long-awaited tax returns covering the past three years.
They show Rishi Sunak paid £432,493 in the financial year 2021-22 – of which the bulk came from capital gains tax.
That year, he paid £120,604 in income tax on his salaries as both a member of parliament and a government minister as well as income from savings and investments.
The year before, he paid £124,473 in income tax and £285,382 in capital gains tax. Capital gains tax is a levy on the profit made from the sale of an asset.
His returns were summarised by Evelyn Partners, one of the UK’s largest wealth management companies.
In the most recent financial year, the Prime Minister made a total of £17,3105 from investments and £1.6 million in capital gains – which Sunak’s accountant said came from his interest in a “US-based investment fund”.
This, the company noted, was a blind trust – used by members of the government with investments to avoid conflicts of interest.
The returns also show Sunak paid some tax in the USA – though this related to his income from US dividends and not because he previously held a Green Card, Evelyn Partners said.
The Prime Minister paid $6,892 in tax on dividends of $45,948 last year.
Critics were quick to question the timing of the release, which came on a very busy news day in Westminster.
It coincided with the highly anticipated grilling of Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson by MPs over whether he misled the House of Commons with his denials about partygate.
It was also on the same day as the Commons voted on Sunak’s new deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “Wonder why he’s chosen today?”
The multi-millionaire Prime Minister first pledged to publish his tax returns during his unsuccessful campaign to become Conservative Party leader last summer, in an attempt to put transparency at the heart of his bid.
He repeatedly promised to do so in recent months, and faced continued pressure to release the documents when it emerged Tory former minister Nadhim Zahawi settled an estimated £4.7m bill with HMRC while he was chancellor.
Sunak’s family finances previously faced scrutiny while he was chancellor when the “non-dom” status of his wife Akshata Murty was revealed.
The arrangement reportedly saved her millions while the cost of living soared.
Following the controversy, Murty, the fashion designer billionaire’s daughter who married Sunak in 2009, declared that she would pay UK taxes on all her worldwide income.
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