Paywall, but The Times helped the investigation, so not unreasonable.
Gist is: Sugar tried to claim he was non-dom, to save £186m in tax. However, members of HoL are officially classed as residents (because Jesus, imagine someone deciding on the laws of the country while not even officially living there)
Additionally, he’s quoted in the article saying that if he was aware, he would have stepped down…So his HoL membership is now being reviewed on the grounds that he was ready to drop his duties the moment it was convenient to him.
TBF he is not the only one who does this. Monaco exists purely for tax avoidance purposes. I have known many who have worked in Saudi and the likes. They have spent money on holidays rather than come back to the UK precisely for this purpose. I think the thing that is galling people the most is the sum of money. If he drops his Lords status then he would well be doing this in the future and no one can say a word.
The USA has a system where you pay tax no matter where you are in the world. Do you think people should be allowed to avoid tax if they are not in this country?
If I remember correctly too, the “travel days” don’t count. Might have changed recently, as it was a law written for steamships, not private jets.
So someone could arrive on the first Monday flight, be there for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, fly back Thursday evening.
Technically only two days in the uk, so they could be around for the bulk of 45 weeks, and still be non-dom.
There is a lot of obfuscation going on with tax systems. This is by design so that only those with money can take advantage of it. Crickhowell showing just this.