Sajid Javid’s right to the “non-dom” status is yet another case of senior Conservative MP’s being implicated in potential tax avoidance schemes. Javid held his ‘non-dom’ status before entering parliament, which has now been questioned by tax experts.
Tax experts have said the fact the UK health secretary was an international banker and his father was born in Pakistan would not be enough to entitle him to the perk.
According to the Financial Times – “Javid, who was briefly chancellor just over two years ago, admitted at the weekend that he had been non-domiciled in the UK for “some” of the two decades he spent working as an investment banker, allowing him to avoid tax on overseas earnings. He gave up that status in 2009 before he was elected to parliament the following year.”
Javid broke his silence before being exposed in the wake of revelations that Akshata Murty, the Indian-born wife of chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was also a non-dom — although she announced last week that she would start paying UK tax on all her global earnings.
Javid, who was born in Rochdale and raised in Bristol, told the Sunday Times he had secured non-dom status because his father was from Pakistan. But tax experts have clearly stated that the birthplace of the father is only one of several tests an individual needs to pass to claim the tax perk.
To have maintained his non-dom status, Javid would have had to state he did not intend to live in the UK indefinitely. He would also have to show HM Revenue & Customs that he had stronger “personal links” to the country of his chosen domicile than he did to the UK. Javid was born in the UK and lived in the country most of his life.
Sajid Javid said in a statement – “Given the heightened public interest in these issues, I want to be open about my past tax statuses.”