London mayoral election 2016: Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith says he will reveal his tax returns if Labour candidate Sadiq Khan and others do the same
Conservative mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith has said he will publish his tax returns in the run-up to May's City Hall election, after being questioned on his previous "non dom" status.
"Of course I will," Goldsmith said last night on the BBC when asked if he would reveal his tax records. "I think all candidates should in this election.
"And if this is something that the candidates agree to do, then I will of course do that," Goldsmith added.
A spokesperson for Goldsmith's Labour rival Sadiq Khan confirmed to City PM that Khan would also publish his own tax returns.
Goldsmith inherited non-dom status from his billionaire father, Sir Jimmy Goldsmith, when the senior Goldsmith died in 1997. Goldsmith later gave up the privileged tax status – which allows some UK residents with foreign ties to limit the tax paid on earnings outside of Britain – before becoming an MP in 2010.
Goldsmith told Newsnight yesterday, however, that he has "never been accused of not paying tax".
"I have always lived in the UK," Goldsmith said, adding, "I have always paid full tax on my income in the UK."
"Being non-dom allows you to make lifestyle choices to avoid paying tax but I have always lived in the UK. I have an income, which comes to the UK, on which I have always paid full tax."
When asked about a Geneva-based family trust from which he collects income, Goldsmith said: "My father was an international businessman. He established an overseas trust before he died.
"I am a beneficiary of that trust, but it's a blind trust and I have absolutely no control over it. What I do have control over is the income I get, and that income I get is subjected to the full tax regime in the UK and has always been."