UK Millionaire Exodus Is More Drip Than Flood
Taxes notwithstanding, the rise of economic nationalism may be diminishing the appeal of the ultra-rich nomadic lifestyle.
An estimated 10,800 dollar millionaires left the UK last year, according to an updated statistic that has given fresh impetus for fulmination against the Labour government’s tax policies. The figure, produced by Johannesburg-based New World Wealth for British migration advisers Henley & Partners, is a potentially grim indicator — a 157% increase over the previous year and the world’s second-largest outflow after China. But for all that, there’s less here than meets the eye.
The departures, including 78 centi-millionaires and 12 billionaires, provided fuel for a lineup of the usual suspects to assert that Labour is driving away wealth creators; to critics, the culprit was Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ October budget, which raised capital-gains tax rates, broadened the reach of inheritance duty and abolished the non-domiciled status that granted favorable treatment to temporary foreign residents. The detractors included non-dom lobby group Foreign Investors for Britain, which bemoaned a “monumental act of national self-harm,” and Charlie Mullins, a celebrity plumber with a Rod Stewart-lookalike haircut.