❓WHAT HAPPENED: One of Britain’s wealthiest residents, Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, has left the United Kingdom amid tax hikes by the ruling, leftist Labour Party, which he previously donated millions of pounds to.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and the Labour Party.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Recently reported in the United Kingdom.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The issue was inheritance tax. Many wealthy people from overseas cannot understand why all of their assets, wherever they are in the world, should be subject to inheritance tax imposed by the UK Treasury.” – Tax adviser close to Mittal and his family.
🎯IMPACT: Mittal’s departure is just one of many instances of wealthy people in recent years to flee Britain.
Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian-born steel magnate, has left Britain amid sweeping tax hikes by the country’s ruling, leftist Labour Party, to which he had donated millions of pounds in the past. Once a fixture at the top of The Sunday Times Rich List, he is now a tax resident of Switzerland and plans to spend much of his time in Dubai. At his 2008 peak, his wealth was estimated at £27.7 billion, equivalent to approximately $34 billion. Even now, with a fortune of ~£15.4 billion (~$19 billion), he would have ranked among Britain’s richest residents.
Mittal’s exit is widely linked to the abolition of the “non-dom” tax regime, which previously allowed foreign residents to pay British tax only on income earned within the country. One adviser close to the family said, “The issue was inheritance tax. Many wealthy people from overseas cannot understand why all of their assets, wherever they are in the world, should be subject to inheritance tax imposed by the UK Treasury. People in this situation feel they have little choice but to leave and are either sad or angry to be doing so.” The UK levies up to 40 percent inheritance tax, while places like Dubai impose none, and Switzerland typically does not tax inheritances for children.
His departure comes amid a broader exodus of the wealthy from London and the wider United Kingdom. According to wealth migration data, between 2024 and 2025, London lost about 11,300 dollar-millionaires, including two billionaires, pushing it down the rankings of global wealthy hubs. Analysts cite high capital gains tax, steep inheritance levies, the declining value of the pound, and the end of non-dom status as key drivers.
Britain as a whole is projected to lose 16,500 millionaires in 2025, more than any other country tracked by migration consultants. Observers warn that this may mark a turning point: for the first time in a decade of data collection, a European country is leading in millionaire outflows. Much of this wealth is expected to flow to tax-friendly destinations such as the United Arab Emirates, which is forecast to absorb nearly 9,800 of the departing millionaires this year, potentially bringing in some $63 billion in investable assets.
Image by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street.
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