Keir Starmer releases tax return after Rishi Sunak revealed he made £2m last year

Keir Starmer has released his tax return just 24 hours after Rishi Sunak’s revealed the prime minister made nearly £2m last year.

The document shows Sir Keir paid a total of £67,033 in tax in both income and capital gains tax last year. That was up from the £51,547 tax he paid the year before.

In 2021/22, Sir Keir made capital gains of £85,466, on which he paid £23,930 in capital gains tax.

That was on top of the £43,103 he paid in income tax on his £126,154 salary he makes as an MP and leader of the official opposition.

Notes attached to the summary of his taxes said the capital gains reflected his share of the profit he made when his sister decided to sell a house he had helped her to buy.

It comes a day after Mr Sunak’s long-awaited tax documents showed he paid more than £1 million in UK tax over the previous three financial years, on earnings of £4.7 million.

But it prompted a debate after it emerged he paid a lower effective tax rate than many people.

Tax expert Dan Neidle said it was a “very good question” whether the law should continue to allow capital gains to be taxed less than employment income.

Mr Neidle, whose work helping to expose Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs resulted in the former Conservative Party chairman’s resignation, said Mr Sunak’s effective rate of tax was far lower than if the majority of those earnings had been made via employment.

The documents show that Mr Sunak made nearly £2 million through income and capital gains in 2021/22.

His income from dividends was £172,415, and from capital gains was £1.6 million.

For that same financial year, it showed that he paid £432,493 in tax.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Neidle said the Prime Minister was paying an effective rate of 22% is “not because he has done anything clever or because he is avoiding tax, it is because in this country we tax employment income at up to 47% but capital gains on investments at only 20%.

“That is why his effective rate is so low.

“Whether that is a fair result, whether the law should be like that, is a very good question.

“And, weirdly, Mr Sunak, who benefits from that low rate, is also the man who has the power to change it.”

On a visit to North Wales the Tory leader dodged a question about whether capital gains tax should be higher.

He said: “I said I would publish my tax returns. I was pleased to be able to do that yesterday in the interest of transparency.”

Earlier Mr Starmer swerved a question on whether the capital gains tax rate should be reviewed, saying that the Prime Minister’s financial details were for “others” to analyse.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, said Mr Sunak’s earnings showed he was “the sort of person we want running our country”.