11th April 2022
Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond
Good morning Last week Glassdoor released its list of US companies with the highest paying internships. Topping the list was online gaming platform Roblox, with an average monthly salary of $10k, yes monthly. Us? Jealous of the interns? No, we’re not jealous. Not at all.
Today's stories
- Taxing times for the chancellor
- Talk of a Talktalk takeover
TAX
Taxing times for the chancellor
What’s going on?
Why is this important?
It’s been a turbulent few weeks for Rishi Sunak. First his Spring Statement received a lukewarm reception with critics arguing it didn’t do enough to tackle the cost of living crisis. And then in the past week his family’s tax affairs have been under scrutiny.
The chancellor’s wife Akshata Murty has been claiming non-domiciled (non-dom) status for the past seven years and therefore legally doesn’t have to pay UK taxes on her overseas earnings. As a result she’s saved an estimated £20m in tax from the dividends she’s received as 0.9% owner of Indian tech giant Infosys, which her father founded.
A non-dom is someone who lives in the UK and is tax resident here, but who has their permanent home outside the country. It can cost as much as £60,000 a year to maintain the status so is unsurprisingly only really a position taken by the very wealthy.
In a population of 65m there are only around 70,000 non-doms. However they are particularly concentrated in some circles with an estimated one in five top earning bankers being non-doms.
The status is particularly controversial as its seen as a way for the rich to avoid paying tax on their worldwide income while still benefited from UK tax-funded services.
Zooming out
Other stories to keep you in the loop
- Joining salaries rising at the fastest rate since 1997
- Thousands of civil service jobs at risk as Treasury drives down headcount
- Sainsbury's increases pay as cost of living crisis bites
- Twitter U-turns on Elon Musk joining the board after becoming firm's largest shareholder
- Walmart offering new truckers starting salary of up to $110,000
- Epic and Lego partner to build a metaverse for kids
- French presidential race: Macron and Le Pen through to second round
TELECOMS
Talk of a Talktalk takeover
Stat of the day
Nearly half of working-age women are providing an average of 45 hours of unpaid care every week
Interesting links from around the web
- Best value holiday destinations in 2022
- Apparently, there are 16 different types of sleepers. Which one are you?
- How to design a feelgood house
