A spokesperson for Rishi Sunak's wife yesterday (6 April) confirmed that as an Indian citizen she has claimed non-dom tax status in the UK, sparking a political spat which is putting further pressure on the UK chancellor.
Widespread media reports cited how Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Infosys's billionaire founder, owns a 0.93% stake in the tech firm worth approximately £690m.
The company's most recent accounts suggest that Murthy's stake would have yielded her £11.6m in dividend payments in the last tax year.
Under UK tax laws, Murthy's status as a non-dom would mean she would not have had to pay tax on the dividend payment from overseas companies.
Infosys is headquartered in Bengaluru, India, and listed on the Indian and New York stock exchange.
"India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously," the spokesperson said.
"So, according to British law, Ms Murthy is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income."
She has a stake in her billionaire father's IT services company Infosys, from which she receives a multi-million pound annual dividend.
Tulip Siddiq, shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, said: "The chancellor has imposed tax hike after tax hike on the British people. It is staggering that - at the same time - his family may have been benefitting from tax reduction schemes.
"This is yet another example of the Tories thinking it is one rule for them, another for everyone else.
"Rishi Sunak must now urgently explain how much he and his family have saved on their own tax bill at the same time he was putting taxes up for millions of working families and choosing to leave them £2,620 a year worse off."
According to Huffpost, it is understood Sunak declared his wife's tax status to the Cabinet Office when he first became a minister in 2018.
