ThePrint ·
No, tax isn’t driving UK billionaires to Athens, writes Paul J. Davies
There are two certainties in life: death, and taxes getting the blame whenever rich people leave the UK. Billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Rokos departing for Greece, where he’ll pay just €100,000 ($115,000) a year, is the latest to provoke a flood of recriminations. But these stories — and claims of an exodus of the super-rich from Britain — should be taken with a hefty dose of salt.
While taxation is an important influence on the behavior of individuals and companies, it’s rarely the only — or even decisive — factor in where they locate. And although anecdotes are plentiful, there’s scant evidence that British fiscal changes in recent years have prompted a rush of emigration. Rokos hasn’t said why he’s leaving; but consultants regularly claim that threats of wealth and departure taxes, as well as changes made to the UK’s special deal for non-domiciled residents, have motivated many departures.
However, the data suggest that previous efforts to squeeze more from the rich had a minimal effect on people whose permanent home was already elsewhere. That’s what encouraged the last Conservative administration to propose scrapping the preferential deal for so-called non-doms, which exempted non-UK income and investment gains from taxes, and persuaded the current Labour government to end it from April 2025.
