UK PM Boris Johnson agrees after Rishi Sunak requested review of his own financial declarations

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed after the country's Finance Minister Rishi Sunak asked him to probe into his own affairs and questions over transparency over his family's financial affairs.

Sunak is facing criticism over his wife's "non-dom" tax status, which let her escape UK taxes on income earned abroad. Sunak's wife Akshata Murthy, daughter of Indian billionaire NR Narayana Murthy, is apparently able to save millions of pounds in tax on dividends, which are collected from her family's IT business.

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Amid rising backlash, Sunak wrote a letter to UK PM Johnson andrequested that the government's adviser on ministerial standards, Christopher Geidt, assess his declarations of interest since he first became a minister in 2018. The contents of the letter were disclosed late on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Johnson said on Monday (April 11) that the PM has agreed to his request.

"The prime minister has agreed to the request from the chancellor for Lord Geidt to undertake this work," the spokeswoman said as quoted by the news agency Reuters, adding that the PM had full confidence in Sunak.

"The prime minister is confident that all the appropriate declarations were followed," the spoked woman added.

What is non-domicile status?

The country of domicile means the country where a person permanently resides in. If we talk about British law, those with non-domiciled status are not liable to pay taxes on income earned abroad.

A person's domicile is usually the country which their father considered his permanent home when the person was born, although this can change if the person plans to permanently live in Britain.

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