10 Apr 2016

UK PM releases income and tax details

3:32 pm on 10 April 2016

British Prime Minister David Cameron has published details of his income and tax for the past six years in response to pressure sparked by the Panama Papers.

It's the first time a serving Prime Minister has revealed such information.

Mr Cameron has been under fire since it emerged that his late father set up an offshore trust in Panama. Mr Cameron admits he and his wife owned shares in the fund, before selling them for £30,000 in 2010.

Figures released by the UK Prime Minister show he paid almost £76,000 in tax on an income of more than £200,000 in 2014-15, figures released by the UK prime minister have shown.

British Prime Minister, and leader of the Conservatives, David Cameron addresses delegates during the Conservative party Spring Forum in central London on 9 April, 2016.

British Prime Minister, and leader of the Conservatives, David Cameron addresses delegates during the Conservative party Spring Forum in central London on 9 April, 2016. Photo: AFP / Pool

Mr Cameron earned £46,899 from his 50 percent share of rent on the London family home in Notting Hill, the first such papers released by a prime minister reveal.

The disclosure comes after Mr Cameron admitted he could have better handled the row over his financial affairs.

He also announced a new task force to investigate tax-dodging allegations.

'Not a great week'

This comes at the end of a week of questions and successive statements over whether Mr Cameron had owned and sold units in an offshore fund run by his late father, Ian Cameron.

Details of the Blairmore Holdings fund had been contained in a leak of 11 million documents, known as the Panama Papers.

The figures released by the prime minister show:

  • He and his wife Samantha made a £19,000 profit from the sale in 2010 of their shares in the Blairmore Holdings fund
  • Mr Cameron declared a £9,501 share of that profit, below the then £10,100 capital gains tax threshold
  • Mr Cameron inherited £300,000 when his father died in 2010
  • He was later given two payments of £100,000 by his mother in May and July 2011 in an attempt to balance out the legacy between Mr Cameron and his siblings
  • In 2014-15, David Cameron paid £75,898 in tax on £200,307 earnings
  • On top of his prime ministerial income, and the London rent, he last year received £9,834 in taxable expenses from the Tory party and £3,052 in interest on savings at a High Street bank
  • He earned enough to benefit from the 2013 cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p (for people earning more than £150,000)
  • In 2010 when he first entered Downing Street, he took the prime ministerial expenses deduction - a £20,000 tax-free allowance - as part of his £142,500 salary
  • But he voluntarily cancelled out the allowance by declaring the equivalent amount as taxable income from 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, before waiving it from 2014-15

The PM said he was publishing the information to be "completely open and transparent" about his financial affairs.

- BBC

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