Latest news with #non-doms
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wealthy UK households rush to leave England over tax change
Labour has been warned over a "flight of the non-doms" as the super-rich flock to leave the UK. Reports say the wealthy elite are leaving over tax changes – prompting a possible rethink by Rachel Reeves, the Labour Party Chancellor. More than 20 luxury properties in the Belgravia postcode are on the market, says a buying agent. One Indian non-dom, who has been living in the UK for the past five years, said she was considering moving her family to Switzerland as a result of the tax changes. 'We love England. We feel very much at home here,' she told the Guardian. 'We want to pay fair tax as members of society. But the biggest pain point was inheritance tax … it is not just ours, but my grandfather's and my parents' wealth that would now be taxed by the UK. That feels deeply unfair as the money was not made here. READ MORE: Warning for thousands of drivers who have 'quiet' EVs on driveway READ MORE: Dame Deborah James' husband's new girlfriend 'unmasked' as he finds love again READ MORE Next UK heatwave set to be 'even hotter than expected' and will start within days 'The current philosophical approach seems to be shrinking everyone's pie instead of enlarging the pie, bringing more investment, employability and wealth to the country.' Sean Cockburn, of the advisers Forvis Mazars, said: 'There has been an acceptance of higher income and capital gains but the emotional trigger has been inheritance tax. That seems to be the motivator for those moving. But not everyone is leaving the UK entirely. 'Yes some people have left, some people are considering it, but some people have decided to stay and are broadly accepting of the new rules. In the media there have been very high-profile, very wealthy people leaving who receive a lot of coverage. I personally have not had many clients leaving.' "Non-dom" describes a UK resident whose permanent home - or domicile - for tax purposes is outside the UK. It refers to a person's tax status, and has nothing to do with their nationality, citizenship or resident status - although it can be affected by these factors. A non-dom only pays UK tax on the money they earn in the UK. They do not have to pay tax to the UK government on money made elsewhere in the world (unless they pay that money into a UK bank account). For wealthy individuals, this presents the opportunity for significant - and entirely legal - savings, if they nominate a lower-tax country as their domicile.
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Will Reform's Britannia Card tax plan win back the super-rich?
In its latest stab at policymaking, Reform UK has come up with the 'Britannia Card'. It sounds like a kitsch gimmick from a building society, but it is actually the party's attempt to recast tax policy to attract 'wealth creators' to the UK. The policy supposedly offers a bonus to workers with the lowest incomes in the country, funded entirely from the one-off fees charged to non-doms – billed fancifully as a kind of Robin Hood tax. What's the deal with the Britannia Card? It is not completely clear, and much depends on how many very rich people come to Britain in response to the offer. In principle, it works a bit like this: someone very rich pays HM Revenue and Customs a one-off 'landing fee' of some £250,000. For that modest (to them) sum, they are free of all UK tax on their income and wealth from overseas. That means no income tax, dividend taxes, and no capital gains taxes on such foreign income, indefinitely. As well as that, they get a 'Britannia residency permit' that gives free entry and exit from the UK, renewable every 10 years – but not automatic UK citizenship (this is Reform UK, after all). This new breed of 'non-dom' - they'd no longer have to prove even a tenuous previous family or business link to the UK – would only have to pay tax on their UK income, such as it is, and their spending – stamp duty on their estates and mansions, VAT and other tax on luxury cars, employers' national insurance for the butler, that sort of thing. Where does the Britannia money go? To the poor! All of it! That's the magic – the lowest 10 per cent of all full-time workers would get a payment directly from the HMRC, depending on how many Britannia cards are sold per annum. Reform UK suggests that if 10,000 plutocrats decided to relocate to Britain every year, this policy would raise £2.5bn annually, equivalent to £1,000 per lower-paid worker. Sounds great. Are there any catches? Yes. One is that Reform's calculations ignore that some of the sought-after wealthy would actually lose out under its non-dom system compared to the current Labour regime; for example highly-paid professionals with savings back home are currently free of UK income tax for the first four years they're in the UK and only have to lay a fee of £30,000 or £60,000 a year. Under the Reform policy, they'd be whacked with a £250,000 fee immediately, plus full tax on any UK income. What would Reform's cost? A great deal. The Britannia Card scheme suffers from a common economic phenomenon called the 'free rider' effect. Thus it represents a huge tax cut for the mega-rich who are already here and plan and wish to stay here even under the changes the previous Labour and Tory administrations brought in, and whatever Rachel Reeves ends up doing. For them, £250,000 will be a windfall. Of course, some others may be attracted, on the same grounds, but HMRC would still lose out. Tax experts put it at £34bn over five years. It would make Kensington (in London, not Liverpool) even more expensive but not that much would trickle down. That means more spending cuts or borrowings to pay for a tax cut predominantly destined for some of the wealthiest people on earth. Any other benefits? Reform says it would mean 'wealth creators' would come and start businesses and revitalise the UK economy. Their policy paper contains impressive looking numbers about how much these types' 'investments in the UK' amount to – some in the tens of billions. However, how much of this is simply expensive real estate, collections of art and classic cars, shares in foreign companies listed in London, and US Treasury bonds is less clear. Super-rich non-doms might splash cash on lawyers, estate agents and tax advisers but their wealth-creating benefits for the nation can be exaggerated. They're not about to finance a new blast furnace for Port Talbot. Aren't we losing wealth and talent? Yes, but not necessarily enough to lose the benefit of a tougher FIG tax regime. Reeves and HMRC seem acutely aware of the trends in multi-millionaires and billionaires moving to Dubai or America, and have already started to ease some of the changes she made in her first budget, such as on trusts used to avoid inheritance tax. Will it work? The quirky old non-dom regime – unique to the UK and Ireland and not to be confused with 'non-resident' tax status – miraculously managed to survive for a century before it was seriously reformed, and now the tax system for the top echelons of society is much more changeable, and undeniably less attractive, to the footloose global rich. Reform says it can make its Britannia Card a contractual arrangement, protected from such political interference, but the fact is all governments love to mess about with the tax system, and no parliament can bind its successors. The costly Britannia Card rules could be abolished by an act of parliament passed in a day, and would probably have to be.
BBC News
23-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Let non-doms pay £250,000 and avoid UK tax, says Nigel Farage
Reform UK has announced it would give non-doms the chance to avoid many UK taxes by paying a £250,000 fee, with the proceeds going to people on the lowest (or non-doms) live in the UK but have a permanent home overseas for tax Reform's plan, non-doms would pay the fee for a new Britannia Card and in return not be taxed on wealth, income or capital gains earned abroad. They would also avoid the need to pay inheritance Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the measure amounted to a "tax cut for foreign billionaires" and Reform would have to either raise taxes or cut public services such as the NHS to compensate for the loss in revenue. Speaking in central London, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said "tens of thousands" of people would be tempted to the UK by the offer of the card, which would be renewable every 10 years. "Many talented people are leaving and we want as many entrepreneurs, as many risk-takers, as many job creators, as many people paying lots of tax, as many people investing huge sums of money."Asked if the policy was an example of "fantasy economics", he said the initial £250,000 payment would be "just the tip of the iceberg of what these people will pay if they come back" in stamp duty and VAT in the UK. Questioned on whether an influx of wealthy people would push up property prices in London, he said it was a "good point" but argued there would not be an impact on the cost of affordable housing. Reform says income from the measure would be transferred annually tax-free to the bank accounts of the lowest paid 10% of full-time workers. Last year, the Labour government announced it would be abolishing the tax status, which allows non-doms to only pay UK tax on money they earn in the country. The so-called loophole meant wealthy individuals were able to legally save money by choosing a lower-tax country as their permanent this year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that, having listened to "concerns that have been raised by the non-dom community", she would introduce a more generous transition phase to the policy, There are reports she is considering watering down the policy further after claims it has triggered an exodus of wealthy people from the government says its package of measures would raise £12.7bn over the next five to the Reform UK policy, a Labour spokesperson said: "Nigel Farage can brand this whatever he wants - the reality is his first proper policy is a golden ticket for foreign billionaires to avoid the tax they owe in this country."As ever with Reform, the devil is in the detail. This giveaway would reduce revenues raised from the rich that would have to be made up elsewhere - through tax hikes on working families or through Farage's promise to charge them to use the NHS."Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: "The British public need a real plan for putting more money in their pockets - but what Reform are peddling is fantasy economics. Their promises are ruinously irresponsible."Only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives believe in the fiscal responsibility our country needs."
Daily Mail
23-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Nigel Farage's plan to restore non-dom tax breaks in exchange for £250k given to UK poorest 'could cost taxpayer £34billion'
Nigel Farage 's plan to restore tax breaks for wealthy foreigners in exchange for an annual fee could cost £34billion over five years, experts warned today. The Reform leader unveiled the Britannia card today, which would allow non-doms to live in Britain but pay no tax on their foreign income and property if he wins power. They would instead have to pay a one-off £250,000 'Entry Contribution' that Reform says would be passed on to the UK's lowest-paid workers. Mr Farage was forced to deny he was lurching to the left to woo Labour voters in the north and Midlands to Reform as he unveiled the scheme. He said he was no 'Robin Hood stealing from the rich' and said he hoped 'tens of thousands of people will come to the United Kingdom on this ticket'. Tax Policy Associates' Dan Neidle warned today that the scheme would 'provide a very large and expensive tax windfall to a small number of very wealthy people who are already here'. 'Office for Budget Responsibility data shows that this would amount to £34bn of lost Government revenue over five years,' he said. 'That would have to be funded by either tax increases or spending cuts.' He also suggested it would discourage highly skilled professionals from coming to the UK because they would not be able to pay the fee. Reform may struggle to convince people that the fee would last a lifetime, given the recent upheaval to the non-dom system, he added. At a press conference, flanked by Reform's Doge boss Zia Yusuf, Mr Farage was asked if he was attempting to give low-income workers free money to win over their votes. 'Nice try, but the idea that I'm somehow putting forward a profoundly left-wing concept today could not be further from the truth,' he said. 'We're saying we want people who make loads of money to come in to Britain in huge numbers and pay lots and lots of tax and buy lots of houses and spend lots of money.' Reform is choosing to help those who work and have been 'hammered', he added. Asked whether he had an overall costing for the policy, given Mr Neidle's analysis, he replied: 'Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I'm not clever enough to answer any of that. 'That just sounds completely off the wall nonsense. I'm really sorry, but I think what we've got here is a very attractive offer. 'People are fleeing this country in droves. Our economy is in trouble. There are fears of wealth taxes coming in. All the mood music is bad.' The scheme is designed to make the UK a more attractive place to wealthy individuals, as it would reinstate the non-dom regime which Labour abolished in April. Non-domiciled status allows people who live in the UK, but who have a permanent home elsewhere, to only pay tax on the money they earn in the UK. It can be used to shield any overseas income and profits from UK taxes, unless they are transferred into the country. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly seeking to soften the changes, however, after fears that it is leading to an exodus of wealth creators. It comes after three of Britain's richest men – including a top investment banker -became the latest to join an exodus of the super-rich amid a government crackdown on wealthy non-doms. In April, Ian and Richard Livingstone, brothers who own a £9bn property empire in the UK and abroad, an online casino and plush Monte Carlo hotel, were revealed as having quit the UK for Monaco, according to corporate documents. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs' top banker, Richard Gnodde, worth over £130m, is understood to have ditched London for Milan.
Telegraph
23-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Reform will ensure non-doms contribute to Britain
It should come as no surprise that, over the past few decades, many of the UK's most successful and influential business minds have left the country in droves – a clear and troubling sign of national decline. Over the past 10 years, UK policy toward non-domiciled taxpayers ('non-doms') has lurched from piecemeal tightening under successive Conservative chancellors to outright abolition under the current Labour Government. The result? A record-breaking and alarming exodus of high-spending, high-tax-paying residents, leaving an estimated £7 billion yearly hole in public finances and inflicting huge collateral damage on London's position as Europe's financial centre. The social contract between the rich and the poor is at an all-time low. Public trust in the tax system has been eroded by perceptions that elites play by a different set of rules. In the past, your average Briton saw little to no benefit from the wealthy in their midst. If anything, it created greater division and hostility. Reform UK is determined to change this. We are the party of working people – the party of those with alarm clocks who get up in the morning and work hard, whether they're at the higher end of the financial scale or the lower end. Our approach is different, transparent, and designed to directly benefit the hard-working backbone of this nation. Unlike the opaque financial mechanisms of the past, where wealth seemed to vanish into hidden pots of money that ordinary people could not see, Reform UK is committed to doing things differently. We will rebuild the social contract by ensuring that every wealthy individual who wishes to move here makes a tangible contribution to Britain's lowest earners. Our policy is simple: Britain must be a place where success is celebrated, not punished with excessive taxes, crippling energy costs, or punitive inheritance levies. We will actively encourage the return of wealth and talent to the United Kingdom – on the clear condition that those who come here deliver immediate, visible benefits to our workers. Here's how it works: every high-net-worth newcomer (or returning leaver) will pay a £250,000 one-off entry contribution in return for a stable, indefinite remittance-style regime on offshore income and a 20-year inheritance-tax shield. Crucially, 100 per cent of this contribution is hypothecated to Britain's lowest-paid full-time workers, delivered automatically by HMRC as a tax-free cash dividend. This means roughly 2.5 million hard-working Britons – the grafters who keep this country running – will receive an annual cash bonus, sent directly to their bank accounts at the end of the financial year. Thanks to this policy, in a low-uptake scenario with 6,000 cards issued annually, we'll generate a £1.5 billion fund, resulting in a tax-free annual dividend of £600 per worker. In a high-uptake scenario with 10,000 cards, this could deliver a £2.5 billion fund, providing £1,000 per worker. This isn't just a number. It's money in the pockets of those who need it most, from cleaners to nurses to small-business owners. Our policy is not a 'golden visa' or a backdoor to citizenship. It is a one-time flat tax paid by newcomers in exchange for the certainty of a favourable tax status. Individuals will still be liable for all standard UK taxes on UK-sourced income, property, and spending. But they won't be taxed on offshore income and gains for the duration of their agreed status. Pay your quarter million pounds upfront, and enjoy UK residency without worldwide taxation hassles. After all, this is still the best country in the world, and many of the world's wealthy want to move here but are deterred by the economic downsides. Unlike the old, indefinite non-dom arrangement under the Tories, which lacked transparency and failed to benefit ordinary people, our solution is immediate, visible, and mutually beneficial for both newcomers and the hard-working British worker struggling to make ends meet. Unlike Labour's punitive approach, which drives wealth away, we incentivise the rich to return to Britain. Over the past decade, the number of non-dom taxpayers has plummeted from over 120,000 to fewer than 80,000. The failed approaches of both Labour and the Conservatives have cost this country billions annually. Reform UK's plan will reverse this trend, capturing revenue from global wealth, channelling funds to support the working class, and restoring London as a global powerhouse for business, finance, and investment. The driving ambition of Reform UK is to put the lives of everyday British citizens first – and this policy does exactly that. We are the party of working people, and we are building a Britain where wealth and opportunity are shared, not hoarded. By ensuring that every pound contributed by the wealthy goes directly to those who get up early and work hard, we are creating a fairer, stronger, and more prosperous nation for all.
