Rishi Sunak’s wife hits back at claims she uses non-dom status to avoid paying UK taxes
Rishi Sunak’s wife has hit back at claims that she took up “non-dom” status to avoid paying UK taxes.
Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Indian tech billionaire N.R. Narayana Murthy, has claimed she has been forced to take up “non-domicile” status, due to not being able to hold dual citizenship under Indian law.
The billionaire heiress claimed she “has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.” The Indian fashion designer currently pays foreign taxes on all income earned outside of the UK.
Murthy’s rebuttal comes amid claims the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s wife may have avoided paying millions in taxes due to rules allowing those with non-dom status to forgo paying taxes on income earned outside of Britain.
The allegations come after the Chancellor last month increased taxes to their highest levels since the 1950s, after setting out plans to increase the burden imposed on UK taxpayers by 2 per cent by 2024-25.
In certain situations, non-domicile status also allows those who hold it to avoid paying UK inheritance taxes, which otherwise take 40 per cent of any assets worth more than £325,000.
Murthy is set to inherit billions from her billionaire businessman father, N.R. Narayana Murthy, who founded Bangalore headquartered IT company Infosys in 1981. Murthy also owns a 0.91 per cent stake in Infosys, which is valued at around $900m.
Along with her husband, the Indian businesswoman also manages private equity fund Catamaran Ventures UK, which controls more than $1bn worth of assets.