Why Britain should scrap non-dom tax status

ONLY A FEW weeks ago Rishi Sunak, Britain’s chancellor, was seen as the most likely successor to Boris Johnson. Dapper where the prime minister is dishevelled, Mr Sunak was popular for his handling of the pandemic; his personal wealth was seen as a story of can-do competence. His star is now fading fast. A cost-of-living crisis is battering both household finances and his approval ratings: they have plummeted from a peak of +49 during the pandemic to -29 now. And his affluence has abruptly become a source of weakness. On April 6th, the very same day that the Treasury increased payroll taxes, it emerged that his wife, Akshata Murty, has (“non-dom”) tax status. As a non-dom, and in exchange for an annual fee of £30,000 ($39,100), she does not have to pay tax in Britain on income generated abroad. That matters because her foreign assets include a stake in Infosys, a giant Indian IT-services company founded by her father, which generated dividends worth a reported £11.6m for her last year. If Ms Murty had been registered as a UK resident, 38.1% of those earnings would have been due to the government department her husband runs. As it is, zilch.