The wife of British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes, but pays taxes in Britain on all her UK income, her spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Akshata Murthy is the daughter of Narayana Murthy, the billionaire cofounder of information technology services company Infosys, and she owns about 0.93 percent of the company.
The tax status means she would not pay taxes in Britain on dividends from the Indian business.
Photo: Reuters
The news, which yesterday featured prominently in British newspapers, came as the government is putting up taxes for millions of people.
British lawmaker and Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury Tulip Siddiq said that Sunak should say whether he had benefited from his wife’s tax status.
Akshata Murthy’s spokeswoman said that as a citizen of India, Akshata Murthy was treated under British law as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes because India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously.
Sunak, who became chancellor of the Exchequer in February 2020 just as the country entered the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing some of the toughest economic conditions in decades, with inflation soaring and living standards set to drop to levels last seen in the 1950s.
To help fund the rebuilding of the country’s national health service and its public finances, he has increased the tax take to the highest level since the 1940s.
“Akshata Murthy is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously.”
“She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income,” she added.
A person familiar with the situation said Sunak had declared his wife’s status to the government when he became a minister and the UK Treasury was also informed.
The person who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter added that Akshata Murthy pays foreign taxes on her foreign income.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS