Fleecing non-doms is the thin end of a bad wedge

23 January 2008

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Allister Heath says that Brown’s poll tax on Britain’s 114,000 non-domiciled residents will drive away talent when our economy most needs it. Shame the Tories would do the same

You would have thought that with the economy weakening, the stock market sliding, house prices tanking and Northern Rock’s botched rescue a daily humiliation, Gordon Brown would be doing all in his powers to help the City of London weather the gathering storm. Instead, he appears intent on making life even more difficult for it.

His reckless plan to crack down on Britain’s 114,000 non-domiciled residents, including many of the City’s most important financiers, will be the most damaging in a long list of spectacularly ill-timed tax hikes due this year. Even the Treasury now admits that 3,000 non-dom expats will leave Britain in April, when the changes, including a £30,000 annual poll tax, are due to kick in. This is a truly remarkable admission, of which far too little has been made.

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January 25th, 2008 1:37am Report this comment

What happened to the flat-tax ideas? I loved the comment to the effect that making the tax system so simple granny could do it on her PC would release x,000 civil servants and tax inspectors to wealth creation rather than wealth reduction.

Rob Trimper

January 25th, 2008 2:41pm Report this comment

There are in addition to todays high flyer non doms, a number of retired non doms who, have worked in the UK for decades decided to stay on in a country they have come to love. The government has pulled the rug out from under years of planning for a tax efficient retirement.

Laurie Macdonell-Sanchez

January 25th, 2008 3:04pm Report this comment

Truly INSANE! Where did this come from? Sounds like what the nasty Russkies did in Moscow @ the end of the IMF bailout in the '90s--tax to death the expats who were keeping the economy roaring, despite the worst efforts of the "post"-Soviet kleptocracy to foil the West’s attempts @ effecting the reforms & providing the stimuli that would permit establishment of a capitalist-style system. Maybe that IS where the idea came from(!?). Whereas in Russia the aim was to permit the cash-bloated powers-that-be (who never really relinquished the helm in ‘89) to return to the Soviet system, for the UK this is a shot in the head economically as well as a shot in the foot politically.

Michael Spencer-Smith

January 26th, 2008 2:17pm Report this comment

In my view the removal of special tax treatment for so-called 'non-domiciled' residents who have lived here for decades is long overdue. This cringing attitude to the new overclass is entirely unnecessary. London will not stop being a financial centre as that is where the market infrastructure is, any more than it did when we refused to join the Euro, although many predicted the markets would move to Frankfurt. People can still come for shopping etc. It's just that if they want to live here, they will have to pay the same taxes as everyone else. What is wrong with that?

Fergus Pickering

January 27th, 2008 6:40pm Report this comment

Explain to me VERY SLOWLY why it would be so disastrous is some very rich foreign persons went to live in Dubai instead of living in London. Why should I care? How will it be bad for me? It might be, but how exactly?

T Hamilton

January 29th, 2008 4:43pm Report this comment

This is a typical Labour move, no thought, no planning, just another empty headline. The effect of these non-dom taxes will drain the UK economically and push out talent. It is also affecting many non-dom’s who do not fall into a super wealthy category. They are being forced to move as they cannot afford to remain in the UK (particularly the retired community who have lived in the UK much of their lives married to Brits). It is also tragic that Cameron & co have missed the point (rather like the grammar school disaster).

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