Would you leave UK if Reeves starts taxing wealth

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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....

So why can’t employers pay a level of wages that does not need topping up through benefits? Ah because less to give out at the top end and reduced profits …

No, but a 40% MARGINAL tax rate on the excess is ripe for driving behavioural change to get your estate back below that threshold. It's ALL about human behaviour! Hence the Laffer Curve.

@Badbadbunny human greed more like.

We are looking into it. In the next few years both kids will be off to uni and with a bit of luck I will have exited a business with a tidy sum. At that point I hope to leave the UK. There is no way I’ll stay if Labour are still in power.

Because it drives inflation. And also requires massive tax hikes. What about all the public sector/quango/charity workers - where does the money come from to pay higher wages to those? Yes, taxpayers, hence why it drives higher taxes, reduced services, or increased national debt.

If you were in that same position and could do something relatively cheap and simple to avoid 40% tax, I can guarantee you'd do it.

So, keep your house at £999,999 and spend the rest, or offload it to your kids before you get too old.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Reform will make Labour look like fiscal nuns. Their supporter base want it all - throttled immigration, lower taxes, higher benefits for British people.. It’ll be carnage.

Rubbish. We use a Wealth asset management company who have been badgering us for years to sort out our inheritance tax planning. We’ve told them we aren’t interested. Not everyone is a tax dodger.

@Badbadbunny I don’t agree. I think that even modestly closing the differential between the highest and lowest paid is feasible in many cases. No I can’t back that up either economic theory. But those companies with huge profits- how much of that was on the back of employees whose wages have to be topped up? How can that be right? Maybe companies that make a certain profit would need to reimburse the state for its contribution (of course not as those that have will always find a way to pay as little as possible). Oh well. Whoever said the more I learn about people the more I like dogs was spot on.

HMCTS currently estimate that tax avoidance costs the UK around £47 billion. I’m a higher rate tax payer but I don’t understand people not wanting to leave the UK rather than contributing.

Benefits are misnamed. They should be referred to as financial assistance.

Workers that keep your lives going (the people that make your coffee, serve you in restaurants, dry-clean your clothes, fix your roads etc etc.. need financial assistance because the businesses hiring them don’t pay wages that keep up with inflation. Why? Because all they care about is making sure their profits are going upwards to investors.

there is no IHT between spouses.

so if you die and your wife/husband (delete as applicable) inherits there is no IHT no matter how big the estate.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/inheritance-tax-planning-iht/

For what’s it’s worth I think we could leave millionaires taxes alone and focus on multi-billionaires hoarding wealth.

Don’t be so sure. You don’t know me.

So let's get this straight, you're thinking about going to the UAE (or something) because you feel entitled to keep all of a large fortune that you have amassed in the UK in which you have brought up and educated your children and used services all your lives. Inequality in the UK is huge and growing because rich people like you have squirrelled away large assets, and no you haven't done it all on your own merit, your work has been supported in society by people in all income levels. So now you want to leave, taking your fortune with you, and just to fuck the future generations further you will output loads of extra carbon dioxide flying back regularly to visit your kids, which you consider better (for you) than long drives? Gees.

A prime example is Stamp Duty. Make it high and people will wait and the pot will be small.

Give some incentive to move i.e over the age of 75 no SD. First time buyers 50% of normal stamp duty and things will start moving otherwise most people will hunker down and wait for this disgrace of a Labour government to be booted out.

I’m not rich but if I was then yes I would. High taxes are fine if they are producing a pleasant society but they’re not - there’s a pool of people with ever increasing ‘needs’ who will continue to insist a fortune is spent on them so they don’t wreck the country, but they will wreck it regardless. I don’t feel throwing more and more money at ‘support services’ is working.

What is tax avoidance? People sneer at people who do it yet I bet they are the same people who buy duty free but of course that doesnt count because its them doing it.

Our dcs are still young (youngest yet to start primary) and we wouldn't be keen to move. We're happy with the UK (private) education system and it would be hugely disruptive and a headache for logistics. The typical tax havens like UAE don't appeal to me at all. DH is from another country and we could move there, and it's slightly better than the UK for tax but not as much as the tax havens, and we're not keen on the education system.

I might consider it when they are finished with secondary school but that's 15 years away so no point thinking about that now.

For IHT, we plan to downsize and gift large amounts when dcs are young adults, rather than leaving a large inheritance. Our main home is worth a lot as we're in London, but it's unsuitable for old age anyway due to 5 flights of stair.

I don't really relate to the anger about having to pay IHT really. I'll be dead and the dcs will have been gifted plenty already and will still have a lot left after tax. We work hard for our money but a large part of our assets have been gains on investments, which took some skill but not so much hard work.

No
It's absolutely what she should do.
I would much rather have excellent public services than pander to a few selfish rich people.

I know someone who complains about this. He's worked so hard blah blah. It's true that he's worked hard (like lots of other people) but the reason he's so wealthy is because he bought several properties decades ago and benefited from the huge increase in prices.

I quite agree. Cash in hand jobs we accept, people pretending to live apart and their partner lives with their parents (its rife!).

People being coached to pass various benefit tests by 'influencers' often online where its easy to hide. People have children that they cannot afford or making very poor judgements about who they have babies with.

The Home Office has been awful for as long as I can remember. I used to account manage them many years ago for a large supplier.

OP you're not answering what many are telling you - there is no IHT due between spouses so if one of you dies tomorrow, then there is no IHT due. If your financial advisor didn't make that clear then I'd look for a new one sharpish. Unless, like I suspect, this whole post is complete crap.

Within 2 years you can also give the money away via deed of variation so it doesnt form part of your estate. Providing you live over 7 years it wont count against your assets because you dont actually have it anymore