11 April 2022 | NEWS
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has admitted that before working as an MP, he held a non-domicile tax status for 6 years whilst working as a banker.
This would have allowed the Health Secretary to legally avoid paying tax on overseas earnings – it is believed he previously held this status on the grounds that his father was born in Pakistan.
However,he gave up his non-dom status in 2009 before being elected as an MP in 2010.
Javid told The Sunday Times: “I have been domiciled in the UK for tax purposes throughout my entire public life … given heightened public interest in these issues, I want to be open about my past tax statuses.
“My career before politics was in international finance – for almost two decades, I constantly travelled around the world for work.”
He added: “In 2006, I moved to Singapore with my family and was therefore no longer a UK tax resident.
“In 2009, upon my return to the UK, I became tax resident in the UK again and also proactively chose to give up my non-domiciled status by making the UK my ‘domicile of choice’.”
The Health Secretary also revealed that, during his time as a banker, he benefitted from an offshore trust.
However, when he became a Minister in 2012, he voluntarily collapsed that trust, repatriated all assets to the UK and paid 50% income tax on those assets.
Labour has accused Javid of hypocrisy.
Having previously served as Chancellor himself, the now Health Secretary’s statement comes following criticism aimed at the present Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murthy, after it was revealed that she too held non-dom status up until recently.
Following the criticism and extensive media coverage over the last week, Murthy announced she would voluntarily change her current tax status as a result of her husband’s position.
On Saturday, she said: “I understand and appreciate the British sense of fairness and I do not wish my tax status to be a distraction for my husband or to affect my family”.
Some critics and commentators have argued that Murthy’s decision could impact the popularity of her husband, who has been drawing criticism in recent weeks for ‘not doing enough’ to help families as fuel and living costs surge, following his Spring Statement.
The revelations about Sunak’s wife’s tax status also revealed that he held a US green card up until last year, which granted him permanent residence in America whilst he served as Chancellor.
The story has also resulted in him demanding an inquiry into the leak that revealed his wife’s non-dom status.
Whilst no laws have been broken, because she has paid all the taxes required of her in her given status, some critics have raised questions of ‘morality’ given that Sunak’s unpopular National Insurance increase has just begun, and the couple own millions of pounds’ worth of assets between them.
This increase, justified by the Government as being the solution to a lack of funding for social care, is likely to hit working and middle-class families the hardest.
