Millionaires leaving UK- are you concerned?

[anonhop]

Read today that 10,800 millionaires left the UK in 2024 which is equivalent in tax take for the government to half a million average tax payers. I don't think that factors in their reduced reliance on public services either.

Do you think this is concerning in terms of investment & spending in our economy?

I understand the moral arguments for the wealthy paying more tax but if so many are leaving, will it practically leave us worse off?

Curious to see what people think

How many left in the years before?

Where does the 10,800 come from?

Is it properly sourced or just an extrapolation from some random sampling?

Try again OP. Maybe with some evidence, and preferably figures going back some way.

@wipeywipe apparently that's more than double the 2023 figure- only what I've read in the paper this morning!

@Zonder I'm not saying these figures are verifiable. In the telegraph this morning but I don't know where they've got them from or how they've reached these exact figures

Yes.

We need more data, but if they are paying a lot of tax, spending a lot of money in the UK and investing in the UK, then yes, I am worried.

@Bromptotoo I read in the telegraph, not sure how to find out how they got those numbers x

No it doesn’t worry me. I doubt a large percentage of them were paying the tax owed anyway they would mostly likely be doing all they could to avoid it.

@EmpressoftheMundane this is my thinking- if these figures are accurate it seems deeply worrying. But it seems like we need better data on this as from a quick google, the numbers aren't clear.

The Telegraph seems to have lost any sign of resemblance to a right of centre quality newspaper and become a megaphone for the views of, presumably, its proprietors.

He many moved here?

Considering that London is apparently the money laundering capital of the world should we be concerned ? Just because people are millionaires, it doesn’t mean that they are spending their money and I’m not sure what benefits the auk get from
millionaires with assets overseas.

@HaPPy8 do you have any sources or anything to suggest how many/ who is avoiding tax?

In my mind, if they are already avoiding tax they'd just carry on doing that? It's probably the ones who are paying tax who are moving abroad. Or am I missing something?

@Bromptotoo fair enough. Just looking for a conversation about it but of course sure the stats are debatable

Yeah this, in a nutshell

The figure has been rising since Brexit, I believe many of them are moving to the UAE. Hope they’re happy there.

The data is from the Adam Smith Institute and has been reported in other papers.
I am concerned by it, myself. We don't have enough taxpayers.

@Snorlaxo good point- I don't know how many have moved here.

Your point about assets overseas is true, but they are presumably still spending heavily in our economy?

10,800 sounds like a lot but is 0.36% of UK's millionaires, apparently.

It's a lot less worrying when you think it's less than half a percent of our total millionaires. Plus, I'd be interested with seeing the breakdown of how many of those that left had real roots here, vs jjust saying they live dher for tax purposes.

@CharlotteRumpling yeah it seems concerning to me. I understand people don't like the wealthy/ feel they need to pay more, but them leaving loses what they're already paying.

If I was a millionaire, I'd be gone too. Nothing to do with taxation or the government. Everything to do with the climate.

@SnowdropPancake thanks for that statistic- that's really interesting.

It would be really interesting to have more data on how much tax those people were actually paying to the UK gov before they moved.

But most millionaires in this country are asset rich ie it’s all in their property. So not being taxed monthly and not spending it.
The country only gets their hands on that if they need care or they die.

It is unlikely they are the ones moving their assets to the UAE or anywhere else.

@EmmaMaria yes - I wouldn't be staying in grey & rainy London! I suppose we need to be incentivising them to stay despite the weather lol.

I dont understand why anyone would live in the UK if they were a millionaire. For the weather alone.

Yes, I'm concerned. Nothing good comes from the exodus of these people who often include those who create wealth and jobs.