A few numbers from Rishi Sunak’s Tax return for 2022-2023

£2.23m – Rishi Sunak’s overall earnings and gains for the last financial year.

£508,308 – paid in tax

23% – the effective tax rate Sunak paid in the UK

45% – the top rate of income tax paid in UK by the highest earners.

That does not make any sense, I smell a rat. What is going on?

Our Prime Minister has a lot of shares in the US wrapped up in an investment fund.

£1.8m – The profit paid out from this US based fund.

20% – the capital gains tax rate in the US.

So has he done anything wrong?

He has not broken any rules in paying a lot of his tax at source. It just happens that he conveniently holds a lot of his wealth in the US rather than in the UK and consequently he makes a financial gain.

One last thought that yanks my chain. The UK Prime Minister pays taxes that pay for public services in the US.

All at the expense of paying capital gains taxes that could be used to fund things like the NHS.