Akshata Murty: How much tax is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's wife liable to pay?
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But there is one person of interest to many who is not on the list – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty. Ms Murty, the fashion-designer daughter of a billionaire, who married Mr Sunak in 2009, is thought to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
There was uproar in 2022 when it was revealed by The Independent that she has non-domeciled status. This typically applies to someone who was born overseas and spends much of their time in the UK but still considers another country to be their permanent residence or “domicile”.
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Hide AdThose who are registered as such do not pay tax on foreign income but have to pay an annual charge of £30,000 to keep the status. While the set up is legal, critics have said the use of the scheme looked bad at a time when the then-Chancellor has increased the tax burden on the British public and as the cost of living soared.
However, after the political pressure piled up on Ms Murty and her husband, she quickly announced she would give up her non-domiciled status and pay UK taxes on her worldwide income voluntarily.
The compilers behind the list have revealed how much they would expect her to have to pay in taxes – £4.8m. To make the top 100 in the UK, the person had to be liable to pay a minimum of £10m in tax.
Ms Murty has a 0.91 per cent stake in Infosys, the tech company set up by her father in 1981 which has gone on to be valued at billions of pounds.
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Hide AdThe Times reported in February 2020 that Murthy has a stake in her father’s IT company that is worth £185million, but her own personal fortune is estimated to be around £430million.
At the time of her tax status making national news, it was said Ms Murty was worth more than Queen Elizabeth II.
She also has shares in two of Jamie Oliver’s restaurant businesses, Wendy’s in India and Koro Kids, while also being a director at Digme Fitness and Soroco, a company founded by her brother. She runs her own fashion label, Akshata Designs, while she is also a director of a venture capital firm which was founded by her father in 2010.
She attended Stanford University, where she met Rishi Sunak and the pair married in 2009. They have two children and own Kirby Sigston Manor in North Yorkshire, as well as other homes around the world.
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Hide AdTatler once referred to her as “an artistic and fashion-loving student with a deep passion for India’s traditional craftsmanship”.
In Yorkshire, it is kitchen magnate Malcolm Healey who tops The Sunday Times Tax List 2024 – as he liable to pay more than £50m in tax. His company hit £1 billion in sales last year, making him Yorkshire’s richest man.
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