The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

How much tax do Ken and Boris pay?

The London mayoral candidates publish their tax returns.

By George Eaton Published 05 April 2012 15:09

Labour mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone and London mayor Boris Johnson. Photograph: Getty Images.

As they promised during last night's Newsnight debate, the London mayoral candidates have just released their tax returns. Based on their own figures, here's how much tax Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick paid last year.

Boris Johnson

Total taxable income- £473,280 (Mayoral salary of £133,117 and £339,625 from freelance work.)

Total tax paid - £213,749
Tax rate - 45.2%

Ken Livingstone

Total taxable income - £94,568 (Employment income of £5,700, dividends of £63,33 and pension of £25,502.)

Total tax paid - £34,661
Tax rate - 36.7%

Brian Paddick

Total taxable income: £70,329 (Police pension of £63,397 and £13,355 from other earnings.)

Total tax paid - £14,534
Tax rate - 20.7%

N.B. Total taxable income excludes personal allowances.

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Tags: London Mayoral Election Ken Livingstone Boris Johnson

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20 comments

Mon, 2012-04-09 20:18 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

If an ordinary person has talent then he is not ordinary is he? Perhaps you are talking about income, rather than ordinariness. Boris can't win, can he? If he sits on his arse and does nothing then he is a rich parasite. If he goes out and makes money and then pays 45% tax on it, then he is still a rich parasite. I think what you really hate about him is that he is amusing.

Sun, 2012-04-08 18:21 — Matty90 (not verified)

I think the Labour Party really needs to stop taking whatever 'medicines' that are leading them to think that anyone in London deserves a crook like Ken. The most horrific part of the Mayoral elections is that there really isn't a worthy candidate. Boris is utterly useless, Ken is a crook and a hypocrite, and Paddick has proven himself a tax cheat. Good luck London

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Sat, 2012-04-07 10:50 — JG (not verified)

Boris Johnson is being paid 133,000 quid a year to be mayor of London. If he has time on his hands to do "freelance work" then his salary should be cut back to half-time. And if the high fees he is able to command for his "freelance work" are due to his public office, then surely some of those fees should go to the people of London, through some kind of clawback mechanism.

Fri, 2012-04-06 08:17 — nomad (not verified)

You can see Kens tax returns here:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2012/apr/05/ken-livingsto...

You will see that over a 4 year period he payed himself £125,555 in 'dividends' on which he paid 20% tax.

Thats a 'tax dodge'. I am extremely dissapointed to discover this.

Shame on you Ken !

Thu, 2012-04-05 19:42 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

Boris lives on a different planet than the rest of us? You mean anyone talented enough to earn nearly half a million of his own bat is just not like the rest of us. What we want is somebody utterly ordinary and not talented at all. Then we'll all feel much happier. The sort of person who wins the lottery perhaps? I know, let's choose the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London by lot. THAT would be utterly fair. Or hand it to somebody totally without any discernible talent except for self-advancement. Somebody like er... Miliband and Livingstone

Sat, 2012-04-07 20:56 — Briar (not verified)

What leads you to think that an ordinary person has no talents? Johnsn's higher earning power is, arguably, no more about talent than it is about his privileged birth, education and ability to network among the empowered. Your assumption is deeply undemocratic. Why bother having an election if rulers and ruled are born to their roles and can never change them?

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:51 — hugh markey (not verified)

How much is that in Turkish lira? A bloody fortune, Abdul! Why join the EU?

Ottoman

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:24 — Clevinger (not verified)

Its worth noting that Ken is over 65 so won't pay employee NI. His tax bill seem very high. I would have thought it would be £10K less with a bit of proper tax planning. I suspect his numbers need a bit of clarification.

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:22 — Harry VR (not verified)

Is Ken planning to employ his wife to write a book any time soon?

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:20 — Harry VR (not verified)

Ken Livingstone is clearly being highly selective in what he regards as 'Total taxable income'. It certainly doesn't include the 200k+ that he paid to himself at a lower rate of tax.

Since everyone knows about his tax irregularities, he would be better off coming clean about it rather than continuing to attempt to mislead Londoners.

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:04 — Kernow Castellan (not verified)

Of course this isn't ALL Ken's earnings - it excludes the £200k+ he put into his tax-reducing service company.

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:19 — Lucidus (not verified)

Monies held by the company belong to the company. If a company director wants to pay himself then the principal method is to pay yourself a salary on which you'd pay income tax, national insurance and employer's national insurance.

By not paying himself immediately, Livingstone is almost paying tax twice: firstly the corporation tax on the company's profits and then the taxes mentioned above when he eventuallly pays himself. It would be better to pay yourself straight away and get only one tax hit.

Mon, 2012-04-09 18:31 — Spanner (not verified)

Uh no, Ken is paying himself in dividends, thus avoiding income tax. The only tax being paid - at least from the information we are being given - is the 20% corporation tax. Given that Ken's wife is an officer in the company, if she is a standard rate taxpayer, then she too could receive dividend payments tax free. As she is married to Ken, she could then transfer the money to Ken without incurring any tax liability as the is non between wife and husband.

In short, it looks to me like Ken is onto a good one, and, with such financial accumen definately deserves to be the mayor. Boris on the other hand has managed his tax affairs like a fool. He's paying far more tax than he needs to. Such financial incompetence should be punished severely.

Sun, 2012-04-08 00:47 — TaxDodgeNot (not verified)

Lucidus, I guess you have never heard/shout yourself or Ken speak about tax dodge. Otherwise you should have know it is one, when you see one. Leftist hypocrisy...well I cant be telling anything new. Can I?

Thu, 2012-04-05 16:03 — MLB (not verified)

The odious little man Ken Livingstone is lying!
Boris Johnson earns a huge amount of money and pays ALL his Taxes!
Ken Livingstone will not tell us how much he earns and how much Tax he pays
Boris Johnson released fully audited figures showing he paid 45%
Ken Livingstone very late after everyone else releases partial unaudited figures showing he pays 15%.
There is a problem with that forgetting how much his wife is paid,
Ken's figures do not include the £238.646 Last year that he earned and
was paid by his company Silveta LTD .. only the dividend he paid himself out of the money Via PAYE or Self-Employment like Boris Johnson did.
If Ken Livingstone was not avoiding paying Tax he would have paid another £70K
Which brings his Tax Rate to 14-15%
londoners prefer a rich mayor to a bald one on the make !
For goodness sake Labour you can do better then this hypocrite and liar,
what about someone like David Lammy or Alan Johnson.
it is said outer London votes for Boris and inner London Votes for Ken, we just hope that London and Bradford do not become the legacy of New-Labour.

Thu, 2012-04-05 15:44 — ChrisL (not verified)

I'm staggered that Boris earned over £473,000.
Unbelievable.
He lives on a different planet than the rest of us.

Thu, 2012-04-05 15:41 — Thomas W (not verified)

... or another way of looking at it: Livingstone earned £24,239 more than Paddick, but took home only £4,127 more.

Thu, 2012-04-05 15:34 — Thomas W (not verified)

Interestingly, using listentotaxman.com to get a rough idea of how much someone on a salary equal to each of these amounts would pay, it's actually Paddick that seems to raise the most questions. Johnson pays marginally less than LTT suggests, but that's easily explained by a few pension deductions etc; Livingstone actually pays slightly more than someone on an equivalent salary, even taking into account NI; but someone earning £70,329, as Paddick does, would be paying over £18,000 in income tax under PAYE.