Rishi Sunak releases tax return details showing income while chancellor and PM

Rishi Sunak’s tax details have been released following months of political pressure, showing that he paid £432,493 in tax in 2021/22.

The prime minister paid £325,826 in capital gains tax and £120,604 in UK income tax on a total of £1.9m in the last tax year.

Of that £1.9m, £156,163 came from his parliamentary salary, £173,398 come from investment and savings income and about £1.641m from capital gains.

It amounted to an effective tax rate of 24.5 percent, according to Sky News analysis.

In 2020/21, he earned £156,164 in salary, £182,186 in investment and savings income and £1.439m in capital gains, adding up to £1.777m, and in 2019/20 – when he was appointed chancellor in February 2020 – he earned a total of £1.018m from income and gains.

It means he earned a total of £4.766m across the three years and paid a total of £1.053m in tax – an overall effective tax rate of 22%.

About £60,000 was taken off his tax bill for taxes paid abroad.

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The summary also sets out his US earnings from dividends, with around $51,648 in tax paid on $344,318 in dividend payouts.

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Mr Sunak came under pressure to publish his tax return after his financial affairs came under the spotlight during his failed leadership campaign against Liz Truss.

It was revealed that his wife, Akshata Murthy, had claimed non-dom status – allowing her to avoid UK tax on her vast foreign income, derived from her father’s Indian firm, Infosys.

Following a significant backlash over his tax affairs, Murthy 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”.

Critics were quick to point out that Mr Sunak’s return was published on a busy day of news and while the privileges committee investigation into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs over partygate was in full swing.

It also came on the day that MPs voted on a key aspect of the prime minister’s renegotiated Brexit deal, the Stormont brake, which passed by 515 votes to 29 despite a rebellion from some of his own MPs and members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “Wonder why he’s chosen today?”

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Mr Sunak first promised to release his tax return in November 2022 , following the revelations about his wife.

At the time, he said he hoped they would be published by the Christmas of that year.

The calls for the prime minister to release his tax details then grew louder following the controversy around Nadhim Zahawi, who was sacked as Tory Party chairman in January after he failed to disclose millions of pounds in tax.

Politics and business correspondent

Rishi Sunak first promised to do it last summer during the heat of his battle for the Conservative leadership with Liz Truss.

Since becoming PM he has been repeatedly asked why releasing his tax returns has taken so long. His explanation? The need to seek guidance from the Cabinet Office.

Unlike in the US, where it is typical for presidents to publish their tax records, there is no clear precedent for UK prime ministers to do so.

Neither Boris Johnson nor Liz Truss published theirs, and while Theresa May and Michael Gove did so during the 2016 leadership campaign, Mrs May did not follow up with subsequent returns during her time in office.

David Cameron released his tax records in 2016 after questions about his personal wealth were raised by mentioning his late father’s offshore fund in the Panama Papers.

Mr Sunak was defended by Tory Party chair Greg Hands, who told Sky’s Sophy Ridge that the prime minister – who attended Winchester college, one most expensive private schools in the country – was from a “relatively modest background”.

He continued: “His parents ran a pharmacy in Southampton. You know he’s somebody who yes he is wealthy now, but does not come from that sort of background.

“He comes from a background of immigration to this country, parents who ran a pharmacy, one of his parents was a GP. It’s not a poor background but not an unusual background.”

Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine MP said: “After months of promising to release his tax returns, I don’t understand why Rishi Sunak has snuck them out whilst the world is distracted with Boris Johnson’s partygate grilling. People will be much more concerned today about the staggering tax hikes Rishi Sunak has imposed on them.

“The blunt truth is that we should judge politicians on their actions, not their wealth. Rishi Sunak will be remembered as the tax hiking Prime Minister and no Boris Johnson distraction will stop that.”

Dan Neidle, the founder of Tax Policy Associates, also criticised the prime minister, tweeting that his submission was “not a tax return”.

And Michael Power, professor of accounting practices at the London School of Economics, also told Sky News: “If being PM is a full time job – I assume it is – I would like to be assured that other business interests and sources of income are not a distraction from the main job.

“This is not a tax point but is a question that his tax return might reasonably raise. Thus if my LSE income was 10% of my total income, it could reasonably be asked if I am as focused on my students as I should be.”

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