“High taxes don’t redistribute wealth, they redistribute taxpayers.”
“High taxes don’t redistribute wealth, they redistribute taxpayers.”
That’s what one of our friends said in reaction to the latest controversy surrounding the British government’s plan to introduce a new tax for resident but non-domiciled foreigners, a.k.a. tax exiles who use the UK as their business base almost tax free. (The UK is a great offshore tax haven as long as you’re not British… we’ve said so for years)
The controversy was stirred up last weekend by Bob Wigley, the chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa and a member of the chancellor (The British Finance Minister)’s “wise men” group who advise the Treasury on how to keep London competitive. He told The Sunday Times: “This proposal was ill-conceived from the start. While it clearly has some political attraction, the economic case is flawed.”
There was a similar proposition 15 or 20 years ago when the rich Greek shipowners who made London their HQ for ship chartering and brokerage threatened to move out of London en masse.
Then, all proposed changes taking away non-dom privs were quickly scotched.
A lot of laws are passed because the majority almost everywhere are simply jealous. They want to reduce everyone to their level. Sometimes they do, i.e. as in the communist world circa 1920 to 1990. However, now, doing the greater good for London means attracting and keeping the super rich & all the non-dom geeks & financial services guys. They, like PTs everywhere, can and will move to greener pastures pretty quickly if they feel over taxed.
Take Monaco…If the 3000 Monegasques decided & voted that the 30,000 tax exiles living there should pay taxes, then the rich folks would disappear in a few months. The prices of real estate would drop from $3,000,000 for a studio apartment to the levels in adjoining France - closer to $300,000. Not cheap, but a 90% decline.
Let’s hope Britain’s Labour government makes the sensible decision and scraps this proposal,
Read the full Times aricle here:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article3340849.ece
