British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had an income of $6 million over the past three years, newly published documents show.
Long-awaited details on the prime minister’s tax affairs were published Wednesday, with documents revealing he made £1.97 million ($2.42 million) last year.
Less than 8% of that amount was derived from Sunak’s lawmaker salary, which totaled £156,163 ($191,971) in 2022.
The majority of his income last year came from capital gains, which amounted to more than £1.6 million in the 2021/22 tax year.
Over the past three tax years, Sunak made almost £4.8 million ($5.9 million) from his salary, dividends and capital gains, on which he paid just over £1 million in tax—an effective tax rate of around 22%.
Sunak also paid $51,648 in tax on his U.S. investments over the previous three tax years, according to his returns.
On his salary, he paid an effective income tax rate of around 36.6% last year.
Former hedge fund manager and Goldman Sachs alum Sunak is the wealthiest prime minister in British history, with a joint net worth of almost $900 million with his tech heiress wife Akshata Murty.
The former U.K. finance minister came under pressure to release information about his personal finances when it was revealed his wife had claimed non-dom status—allowing her to avoid paying U.K. tax on her foreign income, much of which was derived from her father’s Indian company, Infosys.
He first promised to release his tax return in November.
Opposition lawmaker Angela Rayner expressed skepticism about Sunak’s choice to publish his financial figures on Thursday—the same day former U.K. leader Boris Johnson was being scrutinized by a committee over alleged parties he held during pandemic lockdowns.
Other critics voiced their opinions about the rate of tax Sunak had paid on his income.
What do Sunak’s tax returns tell us? It is that a wealthy person with income beyond their immediate needs can always recategorise large parts of that income as capital gains to reduce their tax rate on that part to 20%, which is an insult to all who have to work for a living. pic.twitter.com/K6aEPk3kdJ
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) March 22, 2023
