Asking Rishi Sunak to publish his tax returns is one thing, but where do we draw the line?

Either everyone should publish their tax returns, as in Norway, or no one, writes John Rentoul

Anonymous ministers have been quoted saying that the only way for Rishi Sunak to deal with the furore over his financial interests would be for him and his wife Akshata Murty to publish their tax returns (PA)

Boris Johnson led the way among British politicians in tax transparency, unlikely though it may seem. It all started with an argument in a lift with Ken Livingstone after a mayoral hustings on LBC in 2012, when Johnson was up for re-election. The mayor of London, red in the face, called Livingstone an effing liar for suggesting on air that Johnson avoided tax by being paid through a company.

Livingstone, on the defensive when a caller accused him of hypocrisy for being paid through a company, said that Johnson did the same: “We both had media earnings. We both put them through a company. You have to pay tax on the money you take out”.

The next day, Jenny Jones, the Green candidate, published her tax return and suggested in a Newsnight debate that the other candidates should do so too. Johnson surprisingly agreed, revealing £900,000 in income from freelance journalism over the previous four years. But he wasn’t paid through a company, whereas Livingstone, then forced to publish his tax return, revealed that by funnelling his freelance earnings through a company, paid tax at a lower rate “than a City Hall cleaner”, according to the Conservatives. The Tories won the argument and Johnson won the election.

At the time, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and George Osborne all agreed to publish their tax returns, but somehow never got round to it before the election in 2015. It wasn’t until the publication of the Panama Papers early the following year, which revealed that Cameron’s father had been a director of an investment trust registered in Panama and operating from the Bahamas, that the prime minister finally revealed all.

Jeremy Corbyn, by then leader of the opposition, followed suit and Osborne, after initially saying he wouldn’t, also produced his tax return, including his dividend income from his father’s wallpaper business.

Naturally, the media assumed that a precedent had been set, but then Cameron and Osborne were swept from office and the caravan moved on. Corbyn published his tax return again in 2017, causing a brief flurry because he appeared to have filled in the form incorrectly, but Theresa May ignored him and Philip Hammond, her chancellor, said he wouldn’t take part in “demonstration politics”.

The issue was bound to return, however, and now it has. Anonymous ministers have been quoted saying that the only way for Rishi Sunak to deal with the furore over his financial interests would be for him and his wife Akshata Murty to publish their tax returns.

I am not convinced. I don’t think politicians should have to publish their tax returns. Either everyone should, as in Norway, or no one. It should be possible for the chancellor to answer legitimate questions about his tax affairs without having to go that far.

So far, there has been no official response to The Independent’s report that Sunak is listed as a beneficiary of trusts in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. All we have had is a report that “Treasury sources” say he, his wife and her family were not “aware” of any trusts naming him as a beneficiary.

The public is entitled to know more about the chancellor and his wife’s interests, but his tax return – and even hers – would not necessarily provide any clarity. Sunak should answer legitimate questions about his and his wife’s tax status. I think the public is entitled to know if a politician’s spouse is a non-dom, and Sunak’s implication to the contrary, by launching a “criminal” leak inquiry, is mistaken.

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Nor is it right for an MP to hold a US green card, which Sunak did until October. It doesn’t confer any tax benefit, and he seems to have regarded it as a mere perk that allowed him to come and go to his home in California, but it does formally require a declaration that the holder regards the US as their permanent home.

But I don’t think the demand for politicians to publish their tax returns is the right response. If that’s what you want, sign a petition, but be aware that you are making it less and less likely that normal people would ever want to go into public service.

And once the prime minister and the leader of the opposition publish their returns, where do you draw the line? The chancellor, the chancellor’s wife, any other cabinet minister or shadow cabinet minister and their spouses? Mayoral candidates and their spouses? As I say, either everyone or no one.