UK PM Sunak paid over 1 mln pounds in tax over last three financial years

Following months of political pressure, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has released his six-figure tax bill, revealing that he paid more than three-quarters of a million dollars in the previous full fiscal year.

Sunak, who worked for Goldman Sachs and later as a partner at hedge fund businesses before entering politics, paid a large portion of his £432,493 ($791,392) in tax on capital gains earnings totaling more than £1.64 million in the 2021-22 tax year, according to records. He also paid $6892 of taxes in the US, his first public tax summary has shown.

Sunak had been facing calls to publish his tax return after his financial affairs came under the spotlight during his failed leadership campaign against Liz Truss. He first promised to release his tax return in November 2022.

There was speculation that the tax returns could be controversial given that they were scheduled to be published while his predecessor, Boris Johnson, was giving evidence to the Committee of Privileges investigation into whether he misled MPs over the so-called Partygate scandal.

Three years of returns revealed he paid more than £1 million in UK tax in 2019-2020 on earnings of more than £4.7 million from income and a US-based investment fund.

Last year, it was revealed that Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, had claimed non-domicile status, allowing her to avoid British tax on her vast foreign income, derived from her billionaire father’s Indian firm, Infosys.

Following a significant backlash, Murthy – a fashion designer who married Sunak in 2009 – renounced her non-dom status and said she would pay UK tax on all her worldwide wealth to stop the issue from acting as a “distraction for her husband”.