UK expects bigger non-dom tax take despite billionaire exits
Meantime, other nations, such as Italy and Greece, have lured some of Britain’s globally mobile population
[LONDON] The UK government is expecting a bigger windfall from major reforms to a preferential tax system for wealthy residents, despite a growing number of ultra-rich individuals relocating to other territories.
The changes for non-domiciled individuals who lived in Britain but originally hail from overseas are expected to bring in £39.5 billion (S$68 billion) over the coming years, following “re-costings” from the nation’s tax authority, the UK Treasury said in its 2025 Budget, without explaining the reassessment.
That marks a rise of almost 20 per cent from a 2024 to 2030 forecast previously disclosed in January by the UK’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which certified the latest estimates.
The OBR separately said in an outlook report released on Wednesday (Nov 26) that it had made modelling improvements for its non-dom costings, which included an extra tax year, but that the overall forecast revenue from the changes remain broadly unchanged. The costings remain “highly uncertain”, the OBR added.
A representative for Britain’s tax authority, HMRC, referred Bloomberg News to a spokesperson for the UK Treasury, who declined to comment.
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who on Wednesday delivered her second budget, in April scrapped Britain’s centuries-old non-dom regime that allowed tax breaks on overseas wealth for as long as 15 years.
Billionaires such as Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz, Revolut chief executive officer Nik Storonsky and Egypt’s second-richest man, Nassef Sawiris, have exited the UK amid the changes, which went further than measures outlined last year from the then-ruling Conservative Party.
A wave of UK think tanks has contested whether the changes will bring in extra funds, warning of threats to jobs and growth, even with the nation bringing in a four-year preferential tax system for wealthy residents that’s based on the more simple concept of residency instead of domicile.
Meantime, other nations, such as Italy and Greece, have lured some of Britain’s globally mobile population through introducing their own preferential tax regimes for wealthy foreigners partly styled on the former system in the UK, which scrapped a golden-visa programme in 2022.
As part of moves announced at the 2025 budget, the UK Treasury announced a consultation on supporting entrepreneurship in the UK and revealed plans to explore a “tax offer” to help bring new high-talent individuals to the nation.
It also announced a limit on how much UK inheritance tax former non-doms could face locally on their global wealth. The £5 million limit on certain trust structures applies retrospectively from the same month of the UK’s non-dom regime ending in April, making private wealth advisers see it as a way of curbing the impact of the changes.
This tax “caused many ultra-high net worth individuals to leave the country”, Damian Bloom, private client partner at law firm Taylor Wessing, said. “Whether this is enough to prevent future departures, or encourage any returns, waits to be seen. For many, it will be too little too late.” BLOOMBERG
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