Rishi paid £432,493 in tax in one year – just over 11 times the average salary
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has published his long-awaited personal UK tax returns, which show he paid more than £1,000,000 in tax over the past three years.
Documents published by the government show the prime minister paid £325,826 in capital gains tax and £120,604 in UK income tax.
Mr Sunak, the country’s wealthiest MP, previously said he would publish his tax returns during failed leadership campaign against Liz Truss last year.
His financial affairs have been under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that his wife, heiress Akshata Murthy, held special non-dom status which allowed her to avoid paying tax on her immense wealth, derived from her billionaire father’s Indian firm, Infosys.
It was also revealed that Mr Sunak held a US green card and filed tax returns in America while he was serving as Chancellor.
Following a public backlash Murthy later renounced her non-dom status and said she would pay UK tax on her fortune, which she claimed was to stop the issue from acting as a ‘distraction for her husband’.
Today’s tax records show Mr Sunak earned a total of £4.7m over the past three financial years, taking income and capital gains into account.
In the last financial year alone, 2021-2022, the prime minister earned more than £1.9m in income and capital gains.
The £432,493 he paid in income tax alone is over 11 times higher than the average UK salary (£38,131).
However, the documents shared today only reveal the PM’s UK tax affairs, and do not shed any light on his US income.
Mr Sunak and his wife are estimated to have a combined fortune of around £730m.
There had previously been speculation that the PM was trying to bury the news by releasing his taxes at the same time a privileges committee investigation into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs over partygate was in session.
Earlier this month, Labour MP Richard Burgon asked in Parliament why the prime minister had taken so long to publish tax returns.
He said: ‘People want transparency in our politics, especially because the prime minister is the richest prime minister in history and because of the concerns there have been.’
‘So, why on earth hasn’t the Prime Minister published his tax returns yet? When will he do so? And when he does so, will he include his US tax returns?
Mr Sunak responded by claiming he had simply been ‘too busy’ to publish his taxes during a trip to Paris to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The ministerial code requires all ministers, including the prime minister, to provide details of their tax affairs to the Cabinet Office and the independent adviser on ministerial interests for review.
However, they are not required to make this information public.
The last prime minister to publish his tax returns was David Cameron, who did so in 2016 after revelations about his late father’s offshore fund were revealed in the Panama Papers.
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