Would you leave UK if Reeves starts taxing wealth

[Movingmarble]

Just that really. Wondering if anyone else considering it. DCs both at Uni in next year. We had thought of living abroad a few months each year anyway but now UK is getting worse and worse for tax. Not super wealthy but millionaires on paper and with various investments. Been to advisor and would have IHT bill of £1 mill + if we stayed which makes me so angry. Worked hard for so many years to provide for our family and feels too harsh.
Spoke to our eldest about this and she even said so many of her friends have parents who have moved abroad in last few years. We are lucky we have options for countries, feels hard but then a flight is actually fast than driving up and down to where DC are at Uni so makes me wonder.....

Feel so fed up the constant threats to those who have saved for future and not got into debt through spending on material things or holidays, tech etc etc....

@Finlandia it's great that you would happily pay more tax.

You can set up a DD to HMRC any time you wish. Anybody who would happily do so can do so.

@strawberrybubblegum

I think you are misunderstanding me & of course an increase in any benefits is important to analyse.

However 180bn is still almost double 100bn & whilst there may be things the government can do to reduce the latter figure what can they do to reduce the first one? Plus future pensioners are going to be more expensive as a higher proportion do not have their own homes or adequate private pensions.

12.8% of all people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2025.

Whilst the whys should be looked at, the actual numbers are pretty small & have been higher in the last 20 years.

The leftie lie is that it's morally right to funnel an ever-increasing amounts of money from people who work (which includes state pensioners drawing down their state pension after a lifetime of work) and give it to people who don't work or work less than they could just because they have less money.

But the above doesn't make any sense.
Not every pensioner has worked and paid a load of tax, the majority haven't paid enough to fund a state pension and healthcare.
And many people who get universal credit etc are working.

The biggest threat to our economy is the changing demographics and getting 50,000 more Neets into education or employment isn't going to change that.

Also you are over looking the fact as the state pension age increases, the number of working age people increases and obviously some of these 65 yr olds who now fall into the working age population are likely to have a chronic illness or disability as healthy life expectancy hasn't increased.

@strawberrybubblegum I'm sorry, how are you paying another 40% tax on your post tax income? Do you mean IHT? YOU don't pay that, your estate does. You'll be dead so I am sure you won't be that affected or concerned.

If you are complaining aboit double taxation I'd go for the most egregious and regressive one - VAT. Everyone has to pay that out of their post tax income no matter how poor they are.

Honestly, the entitled whining of the vert well off who think they are the only people impacted by tax is hilarious.

This is a really good point. Also, benefit claims in the over 50s went up during the pandemic and have remained high, now at 2 million, according to this chart.

Here here. I always think that if hard work alone was the answer, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.

Please update later about what you decide, OP.
Am especially keen to hear where you get to move to, and how you manage to have permission to live there. Egypt is especially easy for foreigners to live in, for instance.

Compared to OP, I am a pauper on paper, but still am directly the little excess assets I have now towards adult DC.

This is a really good point. Also, benefit claims in the over 50s went up during the pandemic and have remained high, now at 2 million, according to this chart.

Exactly and many European countries have seen an increase in ill health. It's to be expected after a pandemic.

Fuck me, you'd move to checks notes Egypt to avoid your estate paying 40% tax on assets over £320 (or over a million in some cases).

Egpyt a middle income country with an extremely repressive government, significant youth unemployment and radicalisation issues. That Egypt?

Of course the IHT paid on my estate concerns me.

Work involves sacrificing time and energy which I would otherwise give my family,or else have for my own interests, and the reason I do that is to support myself financially and to help my DC materially.

That's totally normal and the main reason that anyone works. And that material help includes whatever money is left after I die - that's obviously part of my calculation in whether it's worth me working

I'm certainly not sacrificing time with my family in order to benefit random strangers who talk about me whining or bleating.

Can you tell a bit more about your experience.

You can look at moving to Italy. Milan is only 2 hours flight away.

Meloni is just about to bring in higher taxes for non-doms. They need the money too!

If you don't go before the budget, there is a rumble about an exit tax as well.

I think we move in very different circles OP. I don’t know anyone planning to move abroad to avoid paying tax. That’s because I’m a middle earner and work in the public sector.

I think the wealthy should pay their share. I work hard in a public serving role (my choice I know, but bloody good job people make those choices). People who have chosen to prioritise personal wealth over public service should pay more because they can afford it. That’s my view on it anyway. I guess if I had millions and was looking at a big tax bill I may feel a little miffed, but I’d hope that I would recognise that many people have sacrificed a high salary to work in public service roles and those roles need funds. The rich are best placed and will suffer the least if they are taxed a little more.

If you want to reduce your estate as future proofing, and have some inheritance coming in, you can do a deed of variation to gift your inheritance to your kids. They can, quite legitimatly, then give you back cash under the gift exemption every year. As a couple, with two kids for example, you could get back £12k every year in gifts from your kids. If you trust your kids!

There's absolutely no reason to move to Egypt unless you want to. Anyone who earns well does so because they have valuable skills. There is no difficulty at all getting a work visa to many European and Western countries when you will be contributing £10s of thousands in tax and helping their GDP grow. It's only the UK where the government is so blinded by populism and spite to chase away the prople who actually fund everything..

No, we wouldn’t leave. Mid-30s, net worth around £1.5m (I inherited £10k of that).

Is it fair for some DC to get handed fortunes in inheritance and others get nothing? Fairly obviously not. What irks me personally is that the super wealthy aristos and bankers avoid IHT entirely.

Anyway, any new tax on property would be different to IHT, no? I’m on mat leave and have been mostly avoiding budget chat 😂

Exit tax here or Meloni? If here those wanting to go should get out before that.

Public sector roles aren't intrinsically more worthy or better for society than private sector roles. The pay for equivalent roles also isn't much different these days either, especially when you look at the whole package including pensions.

It is utterly infuriating to hear the ridiculous soundbite 'rich people paying their fair share' when they are already paying so much more than their fair share.

I would love to hear what you class as rich?!

You also seemed to have overlooked that if no one worked in the private sector, we wouldn’t be able to fund the public sector.

Many wealthy people changed their behaviour before Labour came to power because what was coming was predictable - it was always clear that Rachel Reeves was utterly incompetent.

I haven’t. It’s literally my point. The really high salaries tend to be in the private sector and they should be the ones paying more tax as their lifestyle will be least affected by it.

I would say on balance they are more worthy though, and on balance wages are lower. That’s not to say this is true for 100% of roles, but on the whole I would consider nursing to be more worthy than banking and you’ll earn a lot less.

You haven’t answered my question. What do you consider rich?

People with higher salaries already pay much more tax. Someone on £150k earns six times as much as someone on minimum wage and pays 21 times as much tax.

Whilst salaries may be higher in some sectors, the difference is not always huge. Then you factor in huge pension contributions, generous sick pay, maternity pay and holidays and public sector employees are not as hard done by as some would like to make out. I know, I have worked in both.

Leave then.

For some people, having a lot of money will never be enough.