Around 500,000 millionaires are set to abandon the United Kingdom as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer looks to impose higher capital gains taxes and strip tax breaks from so-called “non-doms”—resident foreigners whose permanent home, or domicile, is overseas.
The 500,000 figure comes from UBS’s latest Global Wealth Report, with the exodus expected to conclude by 2028. It would cut the number of millionaires in Britain by around 17 percent, the largest relative fall in the millionaire population of any country covered by UBS.
Cities like Milan, Italy, are becoming new havens for millionaires frustrated with the British government. Italy entices wealthy foreigners with a flat tax of 100,000 euros (~$110,000) a year, increasing spending, attracting investments in retail and hospitality, and boosting retail rents in areas where the wealthy congregate.
Last year, 74,000 non-doms contributed £8.9 billion ~($11.5 billion) in taxes. While law changes requiring non-doms to pay tax on all worldwide income increase their contributions in theory, the reality is many will exit the United Kingdom, and the government will collect no taxes from them whatsoever.
Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, noted that Britain currently has the world’s third-highest number of dollar millionaires but argues this is “far more… than it deserves to have as an economy.”
