The Conservative leadership candidate, who on Monday called for greater scrutiny of candidates as he launched his campaign, will say only that he resigned from the controversial tax regime “before entering public life” and declined to answer further questions about the his tax affairs. However, according to sources familiar with Mr Javid’s tax planning, while the former health secretary gave up non-resident status in 2009, he retained some of the tax benefits through an offshore trust until 2012. This step, the which is perfectly legal, allowed him to pay no UK income tax on any foreign investment income. From 2011, Mr Javid worked at the Treasury as a ministerial assistant to the then chancellor George Osborne. While MPs are not allowed to use non-dom on a so-called personal basis, either for income tax or inheritance tax purposes, they can still benefit from it through a trust. That’s because trusts are legal entities in their own right, like corporations, according to tax experts. Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates Ltd, told the Independent: “Non-domicile status runs out after 15 years. It is standard planning for non-domiciles approaching this threshold to place their foreign property in a ‘sole property trust’. This essentially keeps the non-attribute advantage forever. “In my view, this is tax avoidance – parliament intended non-domiciled status to end and this is a loophole that avoids that outcome,” he added. Mr Javid declined to say where his trust was based, but said it had dissipated by 2012, when he had already started his political career and was serving as PPS – the then chancellor’s eyes and ears. He told reporters on Monday when asked about where he has historically resided for tax purposes: “I don’t go into more detail about my tax affairs that had to do with a period when I was not in public life. I have not resided throughout my public life.’ Approached separately by The Independent, Mr Javid’s spokesman declined to comment on his use of non-domestic privileges while an MP. The leadership candidates’ tax status has come under the spotlight after the Independent revealed that HMRC experts were probing the financial affairs of chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. Earlier this year, his predecessor Rishi Sunak, now the front-runner in the leadership, faced questions when it emerged that his wife, Akshata Murty, had used the non-dom status. When asked about releasing his tax returns on Sunday morning, Mr Javid said: “I have no problem with that kind of transparency. I think if I get to the bottom two, the bottom two candidates should be pretty open about their tax affairs.” Meanwhile, Mr Zahawi has pledged to “answer any questions HMRC have about me” and publish his accounts annually if he succeeds Boris Johnson in No 10. Mr Sunak has yet to comment on the publication of the tax returns of the elements. So-called remittance-based non-domicile allows individuals to pay tax in the UK only on their UK-sourced income, rather than, like ordinary citizens, their entire worldwide income. Mr Javid said on Sunday he had used non-resident status on his tax returns for about “four or five years” in the 2000s. The then minister said in a tax affairs statement in April this year that he broke up a trust when he became a government minister in 2012 and was hit with 50 per cent income tax “on those assets” – the “heaviest possible tax burden”. That would have wiped out any accrued tax benefits, he said. He also repeatedly said he had always declared the information required by tax, government and parliamentary authorities.
