The tax collector MUST pay taxes himself

FOR most people tax is an unavoidable duty. It is taken from their pay before they even get it. Apart from a few minor allowances and adjustments, they can make little difference to their obligations.

The recent rise in National Insurance, imposed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, is just a harsh fact of life for those who must now pay it. This is even more so with the many taxes we endure on the things we have to buy, including fuel duty and VAT. You can hardly breathe without paying some sort of state levy.

But for the rich, it is quite different. They have many ways of legally avoiding what is inescapable for the great majority. It is inevitable that this should be so, because tax must be governed by law and laws always have loopholes. And there are other arguments. The ‘non-dom’ exemption, long controversial, survives because it encourages productive, wealthy people to stay here and pay their domestic taxes on local income.

But the rules on such things must be different for any Chancellor and his or her close family. The man who demands taxes from us must be seen to pay his own, and so must his wife. Rishi Sunak has led a charmed political life, almost free from criticism, during his time as Splurger-in-Chief, handing out cash right and left to get us through Covid. But in his new role as Iron Taxman, necessary to pay for the splurge, he predictably attracts resentment and scrutiny.

He should have seen this coming long ago, and the real damage done to him by last week’s headlines is to his reputation as an astute politician. The revelation of his wife’s optional non-domiciled privileges, and of the couple’s surprising status as US residents, were bound to come out in the end. They were not a smear. They were the price of being in politics.