According to tax experts, there are “question marks” about the validity of Sajid Javid’s claim of “non-aligned” status.
Earlier, the health minister told The Sunday Times that he had been non-resident for six years between 2000 and 2006, which would mean he would not have to pay taxes in the UK on his income abroad. .
He said he was entitled to it because his father was born in Pakistan and said he relinquished that status in 2009 before being elected to parliament.
But this is just one of several tests that an individual must pass to claim tax relief.
Homeless people are those who live in the United Kingdom and are tax residents here but have their permanent residence outside the country.
Usually, their place of residence will be the country that their father considered a permanent home when they were born, and to which they intend to eventually return.
They must prove to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that they reside in another country.
Tax experts said that in order for Mr Javid’s statement to be valid, his father had to be resident in Pakistan at the time the health secretary was born.
Ray McCann, a tax consultant and former HMRC inspector, told Sky News that usually only those who are very rich realize they can claim homelessness to save on taxes.
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He said he would be “surprised” if Mr Javid’s father had claimed it, given how much is said about his humble origins.
He said it was difficult to know the circumstances without the health secretary sharing the information, but there were some areas that were “not free of doubt”.
“There are some question marks,” he said.
Dan Needle, a former head of tax at Clifford Chance, also said it was “surprising” that Mr Javid’s father had homeless status when he was born.
“For most immigrants in this country, there is a time when it becomes clear that they will not return, and at that point they acquire a residence of their choice, which is the United Kingdom,” he told Sky News.
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He said it did not seem “particularly credible” that Mr Sajid had managed to claim that his long-term future was not in the United Kingdom, given that he had spent most of his life in the country.
“It seems like a rather surprising and witty position,” he said, adding that “we can’t be sure without seeing the facts.”
Nimesh Shah, CEO of Blick Rothenberg, an accounting firm, also questioned whether Mr Javid had enough personal ties with another country to justify the claim.
“Here comes my skepticism: Sajid Javid has lived almost all his life in the United Kingdom,” he said.
Mr Javid moved to Singapore in 2006 and was therefore no longer a tax resident, which changed when he returned in 2009, saying he had “proactively chosen” to relinquish his stateless status.
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Mr Shah pointed out that in 2009 the government introduced a fee of £ 30,000 for those who want stateless tax status, which was previously free.
“It seems very coincidental that he decided to resign for the time being in the UK in the same year or around the same time the government introduced this flat fee,” he said, adding that there seemed to be a “small gap” in how Mr. Javid determined the decision.
Mr McCann said that from his point of view as a former HMRC inspector, Mr Sajid’s case appeared to be “borderline” by today’s standards, but at the time there was less scrutiny of such allegations.
He said the health minister could use his time in Singapore and his trip to the United States as an investment banker to express “uncertainty” about where he would spend the rest of his life, and that could be enough.
Mr Javid declined to comment.
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