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Don't want my tax status to be distraction for him: Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murthy
According to reports, Akshata Murthy has agreed to stop evading tax through her non-domicile status as Rishi Sunak has come under fire for family links with Infosys.
UK finance minister Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murthy has agreed that she would not evade British tax on her foreign income, Reuters reported. Akshata Murthy owns around 0.93% stake in Infosys, the IT behemoth founded by her father Narayana Murthy. This has put Rishi Sunak in a spot for more than one reason. While Sunak urged UK companies to not do business in Russia, Infosys continued its operation in Moscow until recently. Amid this, reports revealed that Akshata Murthy does not pay a tax on her foreign earnings to the British government as she is a non-domicile, indicating that Sunak who is increasing the tax burden on people might be enjoying the benefit of his wife's tax-evasion status.
Akshata Murthy on Friday issued a statement stating she would pay British tax on her global income, including dividends and capital gains, for the 2021/22 tax year and in future. "I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family," she said.
Her spokesperson earlier claimed there was nothing illegal in what Akshata Murthy was doing. It was claimed that as Akshata is an Indian, she has a non-domicile status in UK and pays tax to the government on her income in the UK.
Coming under fire, Rishi Sunak said his wife's financial investments were separate from his, and that questions about his father-in-law's wealth and his wife's tax arrangements were politically motivated attempts to damage him. "To attempt to smear him, to smear my wife to get at me is awful, right?," he told The Sun newspaper.
What is non-domicile status?
Non-domiciled status exempts more than 75,000 mostly foreign nationals in Britain from tax on overseas income. This tax status has been available since the French revolution allowing a person born in any other country to pay tax in the UK only on their earning from UK.
'Is it fair to ask her to sever ties with India?'
Rishi Sunak had defended his wife's tax status and questioned whether it will be fair to ask her to sever her ties with India, where she eventually will return to take care of her parents. "It wouldn't be reasonable or fair to ask her to sever ties with her country because she happens to be married to me. She loves her country. Like I love mine, I would never dream of giving up my British citizenship. And I imagine most people wouldn't," he had said.
Richer than the Queen
Reports revealed that the share that Akshata Murthy owns is worth almost a billion dollars which makes her richer than Queen Elizabeth II, whose personal wealth is about 350 million pounds ($460 million), according to the 2021 Sunday Times Rich List.
