Explainer-in-brief: Downing Street’s non-domicile resident
The latest in a string of bad news for the chancellor’s PR team post-spring statement is, unfortunately, his other half. Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire, has apparently been claiming non-domicile status since she moved to the UK in 2015.
This means Murty pays tax on money earned in the UK, but not on income earned overseas. She has stakes in her father’s company Infosys, from which she receives around £11.5m in annual dividends.
With her non-dom status she won’t pay tax on money earned overseas because she says her permanent home is India. While Westminster does sometimes feel like another world, it’s not another country.
Non-domicile is perfectly legal – another avenue that has been exploited before.
But it won’t do wonders for the Chancellor’s reputation of being out-of-touch and living by a different set of rules – especially with new tax hikes to National Insurance. Especially as HMRC, ironically, is overseen by the Treasury.