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

I agree OP, it’s very worrying.

Well, these things aren't new since July! Been like that for at least a decade. A handful of rich tax dodging arseholes leaving won't make even the tiniest bit of difference. Good riddance. Don't come back.

Not even the teeny tiniest bit.

It's not a handful though.

And they aren't "tax dodging". They have just been playing by the rules that are set at any given time. They don't like the new changes to the rules so they are off. The beauty with wealth is that it gives you options. And other countries really want our millionaires.

It’s not just the millionaires though - it’s those on the £100-£125k cliff edge that are changing their behaviour. I’ve decided to reduce my workload and take extra unpaid leave to stay under £100k this year. Similarly my sister is a dentist and has decided to work 3 days a week to spend more time with her kids. The additional amount we’d get isn’t worth it anymore. We’ve busted a gut for long enough.

No the impact on Britain was huge. Other countries also had COVID and the crash and their economies have bounced back it was a heavy nail in the coffin fir British businesses

This is what so many people just don't understand and swat away with ignorant comments.

Multiply up the people like you, then add in the millionaires leaving for other countries and it's significant tax revenue that is being lost.

Where is the lost tax revenue going to come from then? If this then continues with falling tax revenue it has to come from somewhere else.

People earning good salaries can make adjustments to their working hours and still effectively be earning virtually the same take home money. Millionaires can change their country easily and operate out of another one that is less punitive tax wise and there are many other countries courting them.

It's hugely counter productive to disenfranchise high net worth individuals and higher rate tax payers as they can afford to change their behaviour. All of which results in lower tax revenue for HMRC. Just as Rachel Reeves is discovering.

The government paid people to stay at home and not work. Or then to go out and eat in restaurants. For months. It was always going to be shit afterwards.

Yep exactly that. Same for me and I am taking similar action. There must be thousands of us, and we are certainly not millionaires.

Agreed. People don't want to bust a gut just for their money to be thrown down Rachel Reeves's hole.

This is what so many people just don't understand and swat away with ignorant comments.

I think they do understand but if it punishes rich people then that’s great and who cares about any negative consequences.

Firstly, you should not feel guilt. You have benefitted from the hard work of your parents in line with their wishes. I may envy your wealth (well the lack of financial worry as opposed to the actual money) but I do not begrudge you it, or question your entitlement to it. I think you ought to be enjoying it and living your own life to the fullest. You get one life, and I wouldn’t waste even a fraction of it feeling guilt or trying to make society equal, because it’s impossible. It’s never happened successfully before and it won’t happen successfully in the future either here or anywhere else. Life isn’t equal or fair, for us or any the animal kingdom.

When you advocate for higher taxes for the richest, it indirectly affects us all. No government is going to say ‘hey, you rich people, pay more!’ Because they are often influenced by said rich people. They might say they will to get elected, but then really rich people actually leave and then there is further burden on those remaining.
So frankly, I wish you’d stop advocating and just enjoy your money! You are not doing people like me (middle earners) any favours.

Yup, it's that kind of muddled thinking that has got us into this mess. I.e. the IHT on farmers, VAT on private school fees, NIC hike on employers - they just want to punish people according to their beliefs and don't give a toss about the detrimental consequences to the wider economy. It's just like amateur sixth form debating societies and a classic case of politics of envy. Reeves, Starmer and Raynor need to grow up, and do it bloody quickly, and start looking at the bigger picture!

The frustrating thing is that instead of playing class warfare at home, we would all be much better off if they start focussing on positioning ourselves optimally on the world stage. Wasn’t Reeves meant to be an excellent chess player? Well now is the time to play chess with the US, China and the EU. So much could be gained long term with the right focus. And if the Italians steal our millionaires, then you just have to react. The Tories introduced the non dom changes to screw Labour preemptively. Who cares what the press things. Do what is best for the country, not for the party and stop pandering to the press. Most people know it is all bullshit anyway and whoever is in charge makes not much difference, we just need them to be competent and ignore the press!

Or you could ask how is she funding 10 teachers salaries - which is the point of this thread. A relatively few high earners who are more likely to be able to leave paying much more than lower earners who can’t.

I'd prefer more of those sorts of people coming into the country who are net contributers rather than the majority of people who are actually coming in and who will end up being a net drain (as we have found out).

Me too. I'm not busting a gut,missing my family and working in a hard physically demanding job for more hours,just to pay more tax. I'm going to tread water until this government is out,then reassess after that. I don't earn anywhere remotely near the amounts quoted,but will be worse off financially if I take more work on. It's a no brainer.
I'm also not improving any buildings on my business property,like I'd planned to do pre budget.Why would I do them up,increase the value and then get hammered with higher IHT and CGT? So that's money that I would have spent with local tradespeople that won't be entering the economy now.

Agree
They started leaving in anticipation of Labour policies as this increased exodus was reported in the summer.
Speculation was rife before the election.

For the record I’ve been living exclusively on benefits for about 6 months due to a worsening of one condition and gaining a second disabling condition combined with insane waiting times to even see consultants to then be referred for tests on another waiting list then wait months to see the consultant for results then… ad infinitum. I became unable to continue in my professional role.

I’m grateful for net contributors and wish there were more so I wasn’t at the 2 year mark before starting any treatment. And I don’t actually get the sense that any of the wealthier people here would resent the fact that as a disabled lone parent I’ve had to rely on the state in the last year (correct me if I’m wrong obviously).

To just say good riddance and who cares is bonkers frankly. To push policies that won’t actually create increased tax intake when you look at the big picture but will drive money away is insane but the latter is being done to please the former.

overall I mostly despair at the general ignorance combined with strong opinions. For example how many people cheering for the changes to non dom rules actually even know what they are?

so I included my financial situation to show not everyone who is concerned is rich and privileged. Should have said that to make sense of my post.

“And I don’t actually get the sense that any of the wealthier people here would resent the fact that as a disabled lone parent I’ve had to rely on the state in the last year (correct me if I’m wrong obviously).”

We are net contributors, especially DH pays tons & tons of tax on PAYE. I am one of those keeping myself firmly just under the highest marginal threshold, out of principle now, as I would rather consume less and spend more time with my own DC whilst I still can.
Of course none of us resent contributing to you, so that you can get benefits, although I am angry on your behalf that you have to wait so long for treatment.

When any of us are ill we just either pay up to get back to work or we use our private healthcare through work - quite often they are also extortionate and won’t cover routine stuff either though, so we are expected to wait and often we just pay (despite it actually costing hundreds a month as a benefit in kind, so it is a rip off too). Because we can and want to get on with life and work.

We are well off and grateful and pay shed loads of tax. However, we understand that plenty of people are far richer than us and we are not envious. Far from it. I also take the view that if internationals have loyalty to other countries too and foreign assets why would they want to pay worldwide income tax here. Or inheritance tax going back 10 years for that matter. I find it incredibly colonialist and typical of British thinking to surmise that anyone would want to do that if they are from other countries. Surely if that is there home they will want some of their wealth to go back there and rightly so!

DId anyone listen to You & Yours phone in discussion on adult social care costs earlier today?

Some of the contributors told heartbreaking stories about the care home costs being paid for for parents and spouses; one woman's mother was being charged £96k per year for residential care and nursing care, and almost all of the stories referenced dementia. One 70 year old man (in the first 12-15 minutes) made the point that his presumably successful parents had saved long and hard so were self-funding most were and he had ultimately had to sell their property, but that in 15 years or so, it would be him possibly needing care by which time, he estimated his care home costs would be £25k per month on current projections. At which level the MC would be wiped out in under one year.

Meanwhile there are care home residents funded by local authorities who didn't save or own houses getting the same care for nothing.

There's not much incentive for the well-off to stick around to be fleeced of every penny in savings, and the value of their home. Set against the move to bring DC pension pots into estates for IHT, it's easy to understand that the threshold for considering emigration at retirement is only about £1.5 - 2m. The Henley & Partners report, covered in the Times, FT and Telegraph amongst others, is pretty reputable, even if it is a marketing tool designed to drum up new business. It's got us thinking.

It is because you can move to somewhere like Thailand or India even and get good care in the home and healthcare at the fraction of the cost of UK care home fees. And healthcare is actually good and easily accessible. So it does get anyone thinking who can afford the move and has some assets to pay for private healthcare.
However, it may also be why they want to expand inheritance tax for 10 years post leaving UK. Which is quite outrageous really and I think will translate to many people leaving earlier than originally intended.

Even some of those of us who aren’t wealthy plan to move away for retirement. My plans are for a country I have very close ties with with a much lower cost of living and good cheap healthcare. The small private pension I’ve chosen to invest in and a small amount of income could see me through the years between 57 and my state retirement age there.

Or stay here with a huge col, crap health services and an increasingly miserable culture and environment. My leaving would be a net gain for the country though

Oh, the ‘I pay your wages’ argument. Nice.

10 teachers = 1 corporate lawyer. Which job is doing the most good in the world?