The wealth of Akshata Murty, Indian heiress and wife of Rishi Sunak
Akshata Murthy is richer than the Queen and owns almost as many houses.
The Indian heiress, and her husband, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, own a property portfolio of four homes worth an estimated £15m – including an LA penthouse overlooking the beach where Baywatch was filmed.
The couple, who married in a lavish two-day Indian ceremony in 2009 and have two children, live predominantly in a flat above 10 Downing Street but also own two other properties in the capital and a £2m Grade II-listed Georgian mansion in Yorkshire.
Murty, 42, is sitting on an estimated £690m fortune held in shares in Infosys, the IT giant founded by her billionaire father. That makes her much richer than the Queen, who has about £365m.
It was revealed this week that despite living in the UK for the past nine years, Murty claims non-domicile status, allowing her to avoid paying UK tax on the £11.5m-a-year she collects in dividend from the overseas IT fortune.
Using the “non-dom” scheme – which is also used by the now-sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and the Daily Mail owner, Lord Rothermere – has allowed Murty to not pay up an estimated £20m in tax that would have been due on £54m of dividends earned over the past seven-and-a-half years if she decided to pay UK tax in full.
Her spokesperson suggested that Murty, as an Indian citizen, had no choice but to be “treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes”. However, all UK residents must actively apply for non-dom status by filing in government tax form SA109 to claim the tax relief.
Murty is also paying a £30,000 “annual charge” to the Treasury for the right to maintain her non-dom status beyond a seven-year cut off period.
The non-domicile scheme, first introduced under King George III in 1799,
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