Akshata Murthy has caused a huge turmoil in British politics after it emerged that she has been avoiding tax on her huge wealth in India. The wife of British Chancellor Rishi Sunak has become a topic of intense media scrutiny in the last few days.
The bone of contention is her 0.9% stake in Infosys, a software giant that her father Narayana founded. It’s believed that her 0.9% stake in Infosys is worth £500m but she has not been paying tax in the United Kingdom on her financial gains from India.
Akshata Murthy has reportedly said in her defence that she was not liable to pay tax on her wealth parked in India due to her non-domicile status, which exempts her from paying any UK taxes on her international income.
What appeared to irk the opposition parties in the UK was Sunak’s decision to levy additional tax on the British population when his own wife was using loopholes in the UK tax law to avoid paying taxes on her international income.
Who’s Akshta Murthy?
Murthy, who lives at 11 Downing Street along with her husband Rishi Sunak and two daughters namely Krishna and Anoushka, was born to Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy in 1980. She met Sunak at Stanford University in 2005 before they exchanged wedding vows. Despite having lived in the UK for over 10 years, Akshata has chosen to remain an Indian citizen.
Narayana Murthy founded Infosys in 1981, a year after Akshata’s birth. The company later became a global tech giant, earning him the title of Bill Gates of India.
According to Forbes, Narayana Murthy’s worth is estimated to be $4.5bn (£3.45bn).
After receiving her early education in India, Akshata travelled to the US to pursue higher education in economics and French at the private Claremont McKenna College in California. During her time in the US, she also spent time working for Deloitte and Unilever before enrolling herself at Stanford University for her MBA degree.
She met Sunak at the university and the two got married in 2009 in Bangalore. She set up her own fashion brand Akshata Designs, but a large chunk of her income from India comes from her stakes in Infosys.
According to Sky News, Akshata is also a director of the venture capital firm, Catamaran Ventures UK, which her father founded in 2010. Rishi Sunak too was a co-owner of the company but he transferred his shares to his wife just before he was elected as the Conservatives MP in 2015.
After the controversy broke, Akshata said that she will now pay UK tax on her worldwide income. Much to the family’s discomfort, Rishi Sunak has now admitted holding a US green card even after becoming the Chancellor.
Under the rules, Green card holders must pay US tax on their worldwide income and pledge that the US is their forever home.