Jeremy Corbyn has published details of his tax return, hours after the chancellor, Philip Hammond, said he would not be releasing his. The Labour leader revealed that his total income for 2015-16 was £114,342 and that he paid £35,298 in tax, according to a tax summary published on his website. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has also made public his tax return.
However, Corbyn faced accusations that the release had been bungled after it was pointed out that his return did not appear to include details of the extra salary he would have been entitled to as leader of the opposition in this period. An aide for Corbyn was unable to explain the omission and agreed that it did not look quite right. The issue would be raised with the accountant who worked on the tax returns, he said.
“This year, for the first time, Jeremy appointed a firm of accountants to do his tax. The accountants were provided with all the relevant information,” said the aide. “We are confident that the overall ‘tax paid’ figure was right.”
The aide went on to confirm that Corbyn had been paid for both his MP and leader roles and that this was not a case of tax not being paid because “the tax was deducted at source” for both salaries.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, a close ally of Corbyn, told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “He couldn’t possibly be intending to deceive anybody.”
Asked if she would release her tax returns, Abbott said: “I think we are going to have to discuss this as a shadow cabinet if we are all going to publish our tax receipts. If that’s what we agree to do, certainly I’ll do it.”
In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning before his first full budget next week, Hammond was asked about calls from McDonnell for him to publish his tax returns. He rejected the request, saying he had “no intention” of making public his documents, since “my tax affairs are all perfectly regular and up to date”. He added: “This demonstration politics isn’t helping to create a better atmosphere in British politics.”
On his website, Corbyn said: “I am publishing the detail of my tax return here, on my constituency website. I have made it clear that I think it is right for party leaders to be open and transparent about their tax arrangements.”
It is not the first time Corbyn has published his tax return. When asked if the decision to release the tax return was in response to Hammond’s comments, a Labour spokesperson said they were “simply being consistent” and that it was “no big deal”. He added: “This is a question of policy. There are huge amounts lost to the public purse from underpayment of tax when services are facing funding crises.
“We think there needs to be much greater transparency in the tax system along the lines of what was outlined by John McDonnell in his statement about people earning £1m or more.”
McDonnell said in an interview with the Guardian that there was a big issue of trust in the establishment. “So one way of re-establishing some element of openness and transparency would be, over a million, you publish your tax return,” he said. “Why not?”
