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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to ask how you would stop companies and investors leaving the UK?

335 replies

LargeDeviation · 09/07/2025 14:39

AstraZeneca (the UK's most valuable company) has said they are thinking of delisting from the London Stock Exchange with a view to list in America. Other companies like Invidia, TUI, have also delisted. ARM is of course another one that got away.

At the same time, billionaires and centimillionaires are leaving the UK at the greatest rate ever.

Each delisting leads to redundancies or lower future growth. Each billionaire lost needs the equivalent of thousands of median income taxpayers to make up the tax lost.

What would you do to stop the rot? My solutions:

  1. Incentivise listings: Allow extremely large bonuses and executive remuneration as long as they are tied to long-term performance. Remove stamp duty on shares. Bring back reduced oversight for AIM etc so small companies can easily list. Actively invest government funds in high-tech incubator companies (as long as it's done by the likes of the Vaccine Taskforce, not by idiot civil servants whose idea of good governance was to try to obstruct the OneWeb investment).

  2. Incentivise share ownership in UK companies. Reduce dividend taxes. Revive the idea of the British ISA from Jeremy Hunt. Introduce low long-term capital gains tax rates (as many other countries have) to encourage long-term investing. Simply cutting Cash ISA allowances won't help.

  3. Encourage entrepreneurs and the rich to come to Britian rather than leave. Reverse the non-dom changes. Large increases in IHT allowances, cut the top rate of income tax. These tax cuts can be conditional on providing a large number of jobs to British workers to make them politically palatable.

  4. Cut corporation tax back to 20%. Sunak made a huge error in increasing corporation tax.

  5. Ditch the Rayner changes which makes Britain even more uncompetitive.

Of course Labour won't do any of the above (or even acknowledge that companies/investors leaving the UK is a problem)...

OP posts:
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Fancycheese · 09/07/2025 15:15

DrPrunesqualer · 09/07/2025 15:00

Maybe the population don’t hate them so much. Perhaps there’s less vitriol towards them. If you experience hate in an environment it’s natural to move away from it.

Edited

Good. I’ll wave them off with my tiny violin.

BallerinaRadio · 09/07/2025 15:14

Let's fawn over billionaires oh however will we cope without them and their tax avoidance schemes 😱 please stay and pay your workers pittance as you siphon your money abroad!

As pointed out above, rejoining the EU would be a good starting point.

mutinyonthetwix · 09/07/2025 15:10

jaws33 · 09/07/2025 14:56

Doesn't America make Americans pay taxes wherever you are?

Putting aside the question of whether this would be a good idea, practically the US has the clout to do this and the UK doesn't. If HMRC tried to demand the records of UK citizens from foreign financial institutions it would be told to sod off.

UK citizenship is also a lot easier to revoke than US citizenship.

DrPrunesqualer · 09/07/2025 15:00

Fancycheese · 09/07/2025 14:55

Ah yes, what a horrific state we would be in if multimillionaires and corporations paid their fair share of tax. Won’t someone think of the millionaires and billionaires? 🙄

Scandinavian entrepreneurs and companies seem to be doing ok in a relatively high tax environment.

Maybe the population don’t hate them so much. Perhaps there’s less vitriol towards them. If you experience hate in an environment it’s natural to move away from it.

Backtothebestbits · 09/07/2025 14:58

Baninarama · 09/07/2025 14:53

The idea that rich folk are leaving the UK has been widely debunked - it came from a press release put out by a firm that... helps rich folk move abroad, which is a bit like asking a car salesman if you need a new car: https://taxjustice.net/press/millionaire-exodus-did-not-occur-study-reveals/

The best thing the UK could do is rejoin the EU if it wants to stop companies listing elsewhere, but that's probably not what you want to hear...

I would question that - I heard that nobody actually knows how many are leaving the country because there isn’t the data collected to know.

jaws33 · 09/07/2025 14:57

The best thing the UK could do is rejoin the EU if it wants to stop companies listing elsewhere, but that's probably not what you want to hear...

This

jaws33 · 09/07/2025 14:56

Doesn't America make Americans pay taxes wherever you are?

Fancycheese · 09/07/2025 14:55

DrPrunesqualer · 09/07/2025 14:52

Theres a lot of hate in this country for those who make money. We can reduce taxes on wealth but the hate will be even worse. Newspapers now talking of a possible wealth tax will lead to more leaving and all of those will be net providers. We can’t afford to lose them and yet the hate continues. No one wants to live in a country that despises you…… I don t think reducing taxes will help a lot at this stage. Only the population can

Ah yes, what a horrific state we would be in if multimillionaires and corporations paid their fair share of tax. Won’t someone think of the millionaires and billionaires? 🙄

Scandinavian entrepreneurs and companies seem to be doing ok in a relatively high tax environment.

Baninarama · 09/07/2025 14:53

The idea that rich folk are leaving the UK has been widely debunked - it came from a press release put out by a firm that... helps rich folk move abroad, which is a bit like asking a car salesman if you need a new car: https://taxjustice.net/press/millionaire-exodus-did-not-occur-study-reveals/

The best thing the UK could do is rejoin the EU if it wants to stop companies listing elsewhere, but that's probably not what you want to hear...

Millionaire exodus did not occur, study reveals | Tax Justice Network

30 news pieces a day in 2024 on non-existent exodus A millionaire exodus widely reported by news outlets around the world in 2024, and credited for the UK Labour government’s decision to weaken tax reforms, did not occur, the Tax Justice Network reveal...

https://taxjustice.net/press/millionaire-exodus-did-not-occur-study-reveals/

DrPrunesqualer · 09/07/2025 14:52

Theres a lot of hate in this country for those who make money. We can reduce taxes on wealth but the hate will be even worse. Newspapers now talking of a possible wealth tax will lead to more leaving and all of those will be net providers. We can’t afford to lose them and yet the hate continues. No one wants to live in a country that despises you…… I don t think reducing taxes will help a lot at this stage. Only the population can