Boris Johnson joined the stream of politicians publishing their tax returns today, showing that he has paid almost £1 million in income tax over the past 4 years.
In each year for which Johnson has published information, his outside earnings dwarfed the £143,911 salary he drew as Mayor of London. In 2011/12 and 2013/14, Johnson was paid £250,000 by The Daily Telegraph for his weekly column – a salary he once described as “chicken feed”. In 2012/13 the newspaper paid him £220,430, and in 2014/15 it paid him £266,667.
Johnson also earned significant money from book royalties: £91,500 in 2011/12, £59,615 in 2012/13, £93,653 in 2013/14, and £224,617 in 2014/15. In 2013/14, the Mayor also earned £31,696 in “other freelance income”.
The Mayor’s taxable income was highest in 2014/15, when he earned £612,583 and paid £276,505 to the Exchequer. Over the 4 years, he paid a total of £916,481.
Like David Cameron and George Osborne, the Mayor eschewed publishing a copy of his full tax return, and instead released a summary of the information therein.
The Mayor’s taxable income of £612,583 last year was more than David Cameron, George Osborne, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell combined.