UK Should Tax Wealthy Exiting the Country, Economists Say

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-07/economists-urge-uk-exit-tax-to-prevent-departures-of-wealthy

Posted by UndulyPensive

16 Comments

  1. NSFWaccess1998 on

    Anything to avoid liberalising planning laws and building critical infrastructure to generate growth/lower energy prices/ solve the housing crisis. The pie CANNOT be allowed to increase. We MUST expens increasing amounts of political energy to argue over how it is subdivided.

  2. ChargingBull1981 on

    This is exactly what we should be doing, the Government are too toothless to do it though!

  3. SmoothlyAbrasive on

    It should tax the super rich whether they leave or not, and the ones that leave, rip em harder.

  4. Exit taxes are an important way to crack down on tax avoidance for capital gains.

    Moving to Monaco for a few months when you sell your company so you don’t pay capital gains tax is currently too easy a loophole and is inconsistent with other policies like inheritance tax.

    They also need to reform inheritance tax. Currently the biggest owner of farm land in the UK is James Dyson – he does this because farm land is exempt from any inheritance tax, no matter its value. So he’s converting wealth into farmland to avoid tax.

    Our tax policy is stupid in so many ways…

    If you’re interested, the IFS has a good podcast episode about it https://youtu.be/ozyyVXxDaSM?si=TjZO3Hnh_qTWHhyW

  5. All this stuff works in theory but not in practice.

    If I were to move to my wife’s home country while we decide to rent out our flat here, do we need to pay capital gains tax on the flat? I’m not wealthy by any means, but if that was the case, it would be an astoundingly bad tax.

  6. I will be rushing to the door if any such tax is put in place as it would increase my tax amount to a number higher than the salary I get paid in the UK. Literally would earn more doing nothing in a low tax jurisdiction than working 80 hours week here. Seems like a no brainer.

    I was actually discussing this with my private banker 2 weeks ago. He said many clients are thinking about relocating due to non dom changes. I told him I can probably manage that but if exit tax is on the table then I’m gone.

  7. kahnindustries on

    The problem is when they are talking about “the wealthy” the people we think about are billionaires

    Billionaires have no income or assets

  8. Ok_Commission_8436 on

    What about using cheap labour in other countries that doesn’t benefit us at all?

  9. Tax the assets they hold in the UK fairly, its as simple as that. They can’t take them away in a suitcase. Taxing mega rich people like this is a fools errand because they have all the best accountants and will find a way. It will also discourage legitimate rich people from coming here and investing.

  10. AdhesivenessNo9878 on

    Queue the bootlickerss who will defend the richest people in society not paying their fair share while the rest of us get taxed to the hilt in return for crumbling public services.