I did pay £5m to HMRC to settle taxes, says Zahawi
Nadhim Zahawi has admitted for the first time he paid nearly £5m to the tax authority to settle his tax affairs, having previously denied the figure involved and claimed he was being “smeared” by journalists who revealed the issue.
The former chancellor told the BBC he had paid HMRC just under £5m after making what he called a “careless mistake” with the tax he paid on the sales of shares in YouGov, the polling company he helped found.
It is the first time Zahawi has spoken openly about the issue, which cost him his job as the Conservative party chair last year after an inquiry by the prime minister’s ethics adviser. He announced last week he was standing down as an MP at the next election.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Zahawi said: “I’m sorry that when I had my settlement with HMRC two years ago, I should have probably been more explicit in the details, in the ministerial declaration, as to how the settlement was arrived at, and that’s my own mistake.” He added: “HMRC found that it was not deliberate, that there was a careless mistake … As has been reported, the total payments [were] just shy of £5m.”
In 2023 the Guardian revealed he had accepted a £5m settlement to end the issue. His spokesperson said at the time: “Nadhim Zahawi does not recognise this amount.”
Zahawi defended his previous statements yesterday. He said he intended to rebut only claims he was under investigation by the National Crime Agency and Serious Fraud Office, rather than the entire articles.
Allegations about Zahawi’s tax affairs first emerged in 2022. Reports at the time said he was under investigation for non-payment of capital gains tax after the sale of £26m of shares in YouGov in 2018. The shares were sold by Balshore Investments, an offshore fund that YouGov described as “a family trust of Nadhim Zahawi”.