As imagined by Brian Beacom
LOOK, just because someone like me may keep a few rupees in tax each year away from the Chancellor – who happens to be my husband – is not something you newspaper people need concern yourselves about.
Yes, I know you’re demanding to know, “How can you claim not to not live in the UK – and avoid UK tax on a possible £20m income – when you actually live in a mansion in Kensington, or your Richmond mansion, or on the Yorkshire estate?”
It’s all very simple; if your daddy is an Indian multi-billionaire tech giant who happens to have a daughter who is paid millions in dividends by his company, all one has to do is give the UK tax man £30k a year as a sweetener, and declare that she will return to live in India – or wherever – one day.
So, is this non-dom thing so wrong? Yes, some say it’s allowed Russian mafia money to buy up London. But I’m stunned to hear Sir Keir Starmer accusing me of “appearing to represent breath-taking hypocrisy.”
What? This man has more faces than a Rolex factory. Wasn’t he the person who sipped at a bottle of beer, with colleagues no more than yards away, during the Covid crisis?
Okay, you may argue it’s morally dubious that the daughter of a multi-billionaire who is married to a man worth £200m – who has put up taxes more than any other Chancellor since the 1940s and skittled the lives of working class people into the alley – can avoid the question; “Who do you pay tax to? And how much?”
But consider this – researchers yesterday claimed to have turned back the clock on human skin cells by 30 years. All I’m doing with this nom-dom thing is turning back the clock to the 1980s when the concept of the wonderfully super-rich was allowed to rampage. Sorry, grow.
Of course, taxes are for the little people. But someone has to be small, don’t they? You Scots know that. And given the soaring cost of living in Britain, is this a good time to be paying more tax?
Will Rishi be pushed to change the laws on non-dom tax status? Sure, his ratings are dropping faster than the government’s attempt to garage-sale Channel 4. But there’s more chance of Nicola opening up her local election campaign events to the press – she’s a secretive little minx, isn’t she?
Will I return to live in India one day, as declared on my non-dom tax agreement? Of course! It may be for one day only, but meantime I’m committed to pay in full the tax rates the Chancellor of the UK Government sets for the likes of me.
Look, sorry I have to go. That’s him on the phone now. I need to ask if he can have a word about these giant potholes here in Kensington. I do wish taxpayers would fork out enough to get them filled in.
They can create real problems with a Maserati suspension.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel