Rishi Sunak has finally published information on his tax affairs. But he has not published his tax returns, which is what he promised to do.
What he actually did was publish a summary of his tax returns instead. And that really was not good enough.
By publishing his tax returns in this way there is a great deal that we do not know about Sunak’s tax affairs that we should know.
We do not know what shares and other investments he owns. So we do not know if there is any conflict of interest between him owning them and his being prime minister. Given that this is a major reason for asking for tax returns that is a big problem.
What we also do not know is how much of his very large income was paid to him by so-called ‘blind trustees’ who are supposed to manage his investments whilst he is prime minister. What we do, however, have to assume is that some is paid to him because his salary as prime minister was nowhere near big enough to cover his tax bill.
What we also do not know is just what value of investments he sold each year – and whether anything replaced them. Again, given that the biggest reason for having this data is to spot conflicts of interest that is absurd.
All of which means Sunak has failed in his promise. He published his tax return. He proved he has an enormous income and is a very wealthy man. He made clear that inflation is not a concern for him. He also made clear that he is no fan of paying tax. But when it come to the nitty gritty, he left us in the dark, and that’s not what we wanted.
What we wanted to know was that Sunak’s affairs are not compromising his position as prime minister and on that vital question we got no answers. He should be told to redo this disclosure and come back with the right answers. Right now, he’s failed the test set that was set for him.
* Richard Murphy is Professor of Accounting Practice and Sheffield University Management School
