The star of Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson’s brilliant Chancellor of the Exchequer, has suddenly faded in recent days. Regarded, until early spring, as the most popular of the Conservative MPs – one of the few able to push the Prime Minister out – the Yorkshire (northern England) elected official must now defend his position, his reputation and that of his wife on foot, while revelations about his personal fortune accumulate.

thursday april 7 the newspaper the independent claimed that Akshata Murty, his wife, had a specific tax status, the non-resident status (“non-domiciled status”), which allows you to avoid paying UK tax on your foreign-generated income. An Indian national, Mr.^me Murty is the daughter of the founder of Infosys, one of the world’s largest IT services companies. She owns 0.93% of the group’s capital, or more than 500 million pounds sterling (600 million euros). In 2021, her dividends reached £11.6 million (they would have been taxed at 39.35% in the UK).

UK tax authorities grant non-dom status to people living in the UK if they can show that they intend to return to their home country one day. Responding promptly to Sun, Rishi Sunak denounced “a smear campaign” he actually intended to make it, and claimed that his wife’s tax scheme was not intended to evade taxes. “Of course you pay tax on every penny you earn in the UK! »He launched.

‘Stunning hypocrisy’

His defense did not last long: Friday, April 8, M^me Murty has announced that he will give up his specific tax status (a priori perfectly legal), while the attacks of the opposition parties have multiplied. Keir Starmer, the leader of Labor (Labor Party), criticized a “astonishing hypocrisy” of the Sunak-Murty couple, who would try to optimize their tax bill at a time when the British are experiencing the biggest tax increase in half a century.

This “Rishi” thing comes in like, Friday the 1st^Ahem April, the energy bill of individuals grew by an average of 54%, almost without help from the State, refusing Mr. Sunak to go massively to help households. On Wednesday, April 6, the increase in National Insurance (Social Security) for employees and employers also came into force, an unprecedented tax increase (+1.25% on average) for a conservative government, which was supposed to rescue the system of public health.

You still have to read 44.42% of this article. The following is for subscribers only.