Rishi Sunak’s wife claims non-domicile status

[TheDude]

Let's be honest - this is not a a great place to complain about other peoples grubby yet legal tax efficiencies.

Many contractors are just as shameless - just on a much smaller scale.

[mattster]

Whilst it's a little bit hypocritical of Rishi to ask us all to pay more, to be fair to her she's not actually doing anything wrong. And as we have all run LTDs at some stage to (legally) reduce our tax burden I don't think we can really complain.

As people have said on here many times, who really volunteers to pay more tax when they don't need to?

A rather generous interpretation if I may say so. There is the letter of the law, which no doubt she is within, and the spirit of the law - and let's not forget the various media meltdowns over the outside IR35 type arrangements of various lefty celebs a few years back.
Non-dom has long been contentious, so much so that George Osborne promised to abolish, it although of course he never did. Nom-dom is not an automatic exemption, so Rishi's wife will have explicitly applied for it, on the basis that she does not consider the UK to be her long term "home" - presumably for the purposes of this exercise she considers that to be India. While it might be hard/impossible to disprove this, it very clearly doesn't pass the sniff test (long term resident, kids in school, married to a governmnet minister), and for Rishi and his wife to be benefitting to the tune of probably several million pounds a year in tax breaks whilst also supposedly considering the very future of the same relief is clearly not going to wash.

I think he's done, if he wasn't before. Curious to know if this has come from Big Dog's team or Truss's, but whoever they are they have done a very effective job on him. Mind you he was probably done anyway once this year's cost of living crisis really starts to bite.

[SueEllen]

I think he's done, if he wasn't before. Curious to know if this has come from Big Dog's team or Truss's, but whoever they are they have done a very effective job on him. Mind you he was probably done anyway once this year's cost of living crisis really starts to bite.

Yep.

This just adds to making him look more out of touch.

[Fraidycat]

If you were an Indian national with your permanent home outside the UK, and no intention of permanently settling in the UK, you'd also only pay tax on income generated in the UK. Even though you're very very tiny.

After you have been resident for 9 years this little loop hole is only really available to multi millionaires and billionaires. Because you have to pay a hefty annual charge to claim this after 9 years.

She is almost at that point, she will have to pay £30,000 charge soon, which rises to £60,000 at year 12 after that.

These amounts are obviously peanuts for her. But make the loop hole unavailable to the masses after 9 years.

[mattster]

Yep.

This just adds to making him look more out of touch.

Yeah. Smart guy, no doubt, and I thought he was very competent when he started as chancellor but he is turning out to be politically very naive - to put it generously. This non-dom thing is just another example - surely he realised this would come out at some point, and how damaging it could be, or is he really that out of touch? And publicising a large charitable donation to one of the country's most exclusive private schools, and doing that right now? I'm not even sure what the message is there but it is unlikely to endear him to the masses.

[mattster]

After you have been resident for 9 years this little loop hole is only really available to multi millionaires and billionaires. Because you have to pay a hefty annual charge to claim this after 9 years.

She is almost at that point, she will have to pay £30,000 charge soon, which rises to £60,000 at year 12 after that.

These amounts are obviously peanuts for her. But make the loop hole unavailable to the masses after 9 years.

Back of an envelope calcs suggest that she is at least a couple of million quid better off under the non-dom arrangement, so just a (minor) cost of business for her. The question is whether her arrangements stand up to scrutiny. She doesn't live in India, she has no active business interests there (just passive income), she doesn't own a house there (apparently), and the family don't holiday there regularly. The idea that India is her home whilst she spends time in the UK is clearly laughable. I trust that Rishi will kick off an investigation.

[WTFH]

Yeah. Smart guy, no doubt, and I thought he was very competent when he started as chancellor but he is turning out to be politically very naive - to put it generously. This non-dom thing is just another example - surely he realised this would come out at some point, and how damaging it could be, or is he really that out of touch? And publicising a large charitable donation to one of the country's most exclusive private schools, and doing that right now? I'm not even sure what the message is there but it is unlikely to endear him to the masses.

He is playing the same game as Boris, JRM, etc. Happy to claim that things are to the letter of the law (unless in a specific and limited way they aren't), happy to ignore the spirit of the law, and happy to rely on their support base claiming it's the fault of the BBC/C4 that they are being targeted when they are doing such a good job. (Note the headlines in today's Express and Mail. For once the Telegraph has broken ranks and actually put the story as a small piece on their front page)

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Whilst it's a little bit hypocritical of Rishi to ask us all to pay more, to be fair to her she's not actually doing anything wrong. And as we have all run LTDs at some stage to (legally) reduce our tax burden I don't think we can really complain.

As people have said on here many times, who really volunteers to pay more tax when they don't need to?

I'd agree with this - except for HMRC's habit of retrospectively pursuing us - which is a habit they don't seem to have in the case of millionaire non-doms.

[d000hg]

"We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes"

Have you mis-read the story somehow? She pays tax on foreign income abroad, and pays tax on UK income in the UK. India won't let her have dual nationality and she doesn't want to renounce her nationality.

[Whorty]

I'd agree with this - except for HMRC's habit of retrospectively pursuing us - which is a habit they don't seem to have in the case of millionaire non-doms.

Whilst you are almost certainly right, that's not her fault. That's the fault of the law and how HMRC apply the law.