Is anyone else planning to leave the UK?

EasternStandard · Today 18:43
make sure you don’t get stung by an exit tax if you wait until after the budget. Maybe not but someone mentioned it on here earlier

If an exit tax is introduced how will it be enforced? I mean if someone sells everything, moves their money abroad and leaves the country, how can the government retrieve the tax?

I'm not sure where DH and I are fitting into the debate about earnings and taxation. We definitely don't meet the HNWI standard. We saved money in a SIPP, which has done okay. We bought a cheap house 30 years ago. We pay the council tax and water rate.

My main concern is that I do not have a scooby about where the definition of wealth starts. We have worked for everything we have, and we are comfortably off, but it wouldn't cover buying extravagant anything. Yet we are starting to feel hunted by the Chancellor because the big decisions we made 30 years ago were good ones.

@cupfinalchaosmake sure you don’t get stung by an exit tax if you wait until after the budget. Maybe not but someone mentioned it on here earlier.

I actually am unsure of the percentage of annual earnings as this was for a few isolated transactions. Dh definitely pays all the tax he owes, even with a good accountant it’s still taxed!

Very rich people at top of income pay a lot less as % income, Rishi Sunak paid a lot less % than me.

The very rich aren't generally on PAYE so pay less tax

Can I ask what % of earning is £1m? I pay nearly 35% of wages and I work my arse off too.

Very rich people at top of income pay a lot less as % income, Rishi Sunak paid a lot less % than me.

This is very concerning, and I am very sorry to hear that you feel unsafe in your own country. That shouldn't happen. I've been horrified by the increase in antisemitism in the last few years. I don't blame you.

If it wasn’t a very recent episode, that person could have been planning to take the ‘golden visa’ route to get residency via buying a ‘substantial’ property, investment etc — but the law abolishing that came into effect this past spring.

I was watching an episode of A Place In The Sun and the buyer said she was looking for a property which would initially be a holiday home but would become her permanent home (in Spain). I was curious as to how she could just move permanently to Spain post-Brexit.

I guess the safety NZ posts are referring back to mine? As we’re leaving the UK to nz partly for safety reasons. We’re in a niche position of being Jewish, while NZ still has antisemitism issues, that have increased, friends who are already there have talked about feeling more relaxed/safer/wanted, and that’s the kind of safety we’re seeking. No doubt there will still be issues, and someone’s listed they have higher crime levels, but it will feel safer to us.

I agree with you there. It's capitalism though and sadly the same in many other countries.

@APTPT I know a few people who are happy after moving to Oz. It's too far away for me.

We did consider moving but not because of Reform or a hatred of the UK just because of the hatred of winter weather by DH. We did look in to Golden Visa schemes. He speaks a few languages well, whereas I only speak a bit of French. We had the opportunity when DH was headhunted to move to Australia but we didn’t go and zero regrets.

We have settled on staying here and having a 12 week holiday in warmer climes Post Christmas every year as we have retired early.

Yes, our plans are in motion and we are very sad about it. But financially it doesn’t make sense to stay here and our children have already left.

I left the UK for Ireland in 2003 ( I am from NI but we moved to Cork) . I loved living in London, but I’d just had a baby and wanted to live in a nice house, which we couldn’t afford in London. Cork was a great place to live until the economy crashed, so we moved again to Australia. My only regret is not moving sooner, we love it here and have a great quality of life. I don’t miss the weather! We were back in the UK and Ireland for a month in August, and while it was lovely to visit our lives are better here. All the cities we visited were buzzing but expensive, and the small towns were dead, nothing but charity and vape shops! And the roads and litter were shocking!The only things I miss apart from family and friends of course are newspapers and Marks and Spencer’s food hall. But I wouldn’t swap for what we have here.

What is it about Portugal that you like?

We' means DH, DD (18 )and DS (21). DH totally onboard. DD and DS not, so we can't just leave them.
If your kids don't want to go, what then? If they choose to stay here, settle/have kids, what will you do then?

Pro-Labour? Me? Doubt it.

I wasn't sneering at you. I didn't even read your posts until I got your reply. It was a general point about the OP.

I've lived all over the world and speak quite a few languages but I've never been happier anywhere than I've been in my own country (UK). Im not leaving again. It might not be perfect but its my spiritual home.

I'd happily move to NZ to out-run a lot of stuff happening in the UK. I was just pointing out that safety isn't necessarily going to be one of them.

Where would you go? There seem to be problems everywhere, at least here we understand them, if you go to another random country there will just be a whole different set of problems to deal with and in many countries you won't even speak the language. And in southern Europe extreme summer heat is becoming a concern. The only place I can think of would be Canada, but I doubt I could get in and I'm sure they have plenty of problems too once you get to know it better.

Enjoy. Agree the pointless pro Labour mn jibes don’t mean anything.

Australia. Could be NZ eventually.

@fkat I do not believe in reincarnation and do not intend to waste my one life or especially that of my children because I am worried one Mumsnetter will sneer at me for being childish. You possibly live somewhere a lot more cosseted from various social problems than we have been.

Apart from anything else it's such a childish position. "I don't like it here any more mummy. I'm going to run away!" It's the position of people who don't know how to deal with problems and don't know how to manage change or positively influence where they are. They just expect to take off a country or society and not contribute.

(Not emigration generally - for new adventures, jobs and horizons - or when things are genuinely diabolical - like antisemitism. I'm talking about the 'don't like this country no more, I'm leaving!' flounce)

Back in the 90s we used to take the piss out of celebrities who threatened to leave if Labour got in - at least Phil Collins put his money where his mouth is and went to Switzerland. Not many of us have Phil Collins style bank accounts though.

@APTPT where are you going?