Everyone is making the same point about Rishi Sunak's tax returns

Rishi Sunak has published his tax returns and everyone is making the same point.

The released details showed the prime minister made £1.9m last year - including £1.6m in capital gains and more than £300,000 in earnings and investment income.

In total, the prime minister made more than £4.7m over the past three years and paid more than £1m in UK tax over the three-year period, including £432,000 last year.

Sunak initially pledged to be transparent about his tax affairs by publishing these documents last summer during his unsuccessful Conservative leadership campaign against Liz Truss.

He has repeated his pledge since, especially when Nadhim Zahawi's tax arrangements caused controversy and because his financial affairs have been under some scrutiny since it was revealed his wife previously had "non dom" status to avoid UK tax on foreign income, and because he had held a US green card and filed tax returns in America while he was chancellor.

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But people including journalist Kay Burley and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas questioned the timing of the publication, given it happened while people were watching former prime minister Boris Johnson give evidence to the privileges committee about whether he deliberately misled parliament when he insisted all lockdown rules were followed in Downing Street during the pandemic.

Here's what people had to say about it:

Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson, said: “After months of promising to release his tax returns, I don’t understand why Rishi Sunak has snuck them out whilst the world is distracted with Boris Johnson’s Partygate grilling.”

It is not required for ministers to make their tax affairs public. However David Cameron and Theresa May did while they held the office of prime minister, as did Boris Johnson when he was London mayor and George Osborne when he was the chancellor.

indy100 has contacted Downing Street to comment on this story.

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