Akshata Murthy, wife of former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and chairperson Sudha Murthy, has been in the limelight after Rishi Sunak’s lead in the upcoming prime ministerial elections in the UK.
Fashion designer Akshata met Rishi Sunak while studying at Stanford. The two married in 2009 in a two-day ceremony in Bengaluru.
The 42-year-old had come under scrutiny earlier this year due to her wealth, tax situation and ties to Russia. She had non-domicile status and did not pay tax on her income outside Britain. After the controversy, she said she would no longer take advantage of non-domicile status and would pay taxes on her income outside the UK.
Akshata’s Russia connection?
It is reported that before becoming the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak had transferred some shares of his company in the name of Akshata. Akshata has a stake in her father Narayana Murthy’s company Infosys, which is now worth around $80 billion. The company has offices in Russia.
Once Russia invaded Ukraine, the businesses that Britain acquired from Russia were believed. Sunak was drawn to the account of his wife’s income, to which he said, “I am an elected
Politicians and I are here to talk to you about what I am responsible for. “He denies that he or his family is profiting from any business with Russia.”
An Infosys spokesperson later told a news channel, “Infosys supports and supports peace between Russia and Ukraine.” Infosys has a small team of employees based out of Russia, which serves some of our global clients locally. We do not have any active business relations with local Russian enterprises.”
Akshata’s non-domicile status?
Akshata is an Indian citizen which entitles her not to pay taxes on her foreign income in the UK. In his case, this income is in lakhs. With only a 0.93 percent stake in his father’s tech company Infosys, which is worth around £690 million, his dividend comes in at close to £11.6 million.
Generally, the tax on dividend is paid to the treasury, which is headed by her husband. Technically, her non-DOM status exempted her from that tax.
This did not go down well with UK taxpayers, especially not in line with her husband’s position.
In a statement, she said, “People have asked questions about my tax regime: To be clear, I have paid taxes on my UK income in this country and international tax on my international income. is legal from and how many non-resident people are taxed in the UK.”
“For this reason, I will no longer claim remittance basis for tax. This means I will now pay UK tax based on all my worldwide income, including dividends and capital gains, wherever the income is generated anywhere in the world. I do it because I want to, not because the rules require me to. These new regimes will begin immediately and will also apply to the tax year that has just ended.”
This is just the beginning, as Rishi Sunak begins his five-week nationwide campaign to woo Tory voters.
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