I was a non-dom too, admits Javid
SAJID Javid has admitted he was a ‘non-dom’ while earning up to £3million a year as a banker.
The Health Secretary held the tax status between 2000 and 2006 before beginning his political career.
It meant that Mr Javid, who became an MP in 2010, did not pay UK tax on his overseas income during this period.
He also disclosed that he benefited from an offshore trust 20 years ago when he worked for Deutsche Bank.
Mr Javid said he had ‘been domiciled in the UK for tax purposes’ throughout his public life.
But he also told the Sunday Times: ‘For almost two decades I constantly travelled around the world for work while resident in the UK, and was at times entirely resident abroad. For some of those years, I was non-domiciled for tax purposes. But I paid all UK taxes due on my income.’
Mr Javid said he was entitled to the status because his father was born in Pakistan, even though he is not thought to have been domiciled there for tax.
He paid US taxes between 1992 and 1996 when he was posted to New York, before returning to the UK and becoming ‘tax-resident’ here.
‘For some of those years I was nondomiciled for tax purposes, but I paid all UK taxes due on my income and have always done so,’ Mr Javid said. ‘In 2006 I moved to Singapore with my family and was therefore no longer a UK tax resident.
‘In 2009, upon my return to the UK, I became tax-resident in the UK again and also proactively chose to give up my non-domiciled status by making the UK my domicile of choice.’
As for his offshore trust, Mr Javid said that when he became a minister in 2012 he decided ‘to voluntarily collapse that trust, repatriate all assets to the UK and pay 50 per cent income tax on those assets’.
The Liberal Democrats revealed yesterday that they plan to table a ministerial tax residency status Bill. Although MPs and peers cannot use non-dom status, their families are not covered by these rules.