One in eight people registered in Britain as non-resident for tax purposes left the country in the last year for which HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has records.
One in eight people registered in Britain as non-resident for tax purposes left the country in the last year for which HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has records.
The 12 per cent decrease during the year to April, 2009, demonstrates that tax-driven emigration is not just an option for companies like Wolseley, the FTSE-listed plumbing group that said this week it is leaving Britain for Switzerland and simpler, lower taxes. Accountants say the decline in non-resident numbers reflects HMRC’s tougher stance toward wealthy individuals and its campaign to raise revenues.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) defines non-resident taxpayers as individuals who spend less than 183 days in the UK during the tax year or whose visits to the UK do not average 91 days or more a tax year over a maximum of four years.
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Richard Mannion, a director at accountants Smith & Williamson, said: “The statistics indicate that the number of UK taxpayers registering as non-resident fell from 148,000 in 2007/8 to 130,000 in 2008/9. But another way of looking at the same figures is to say that a total of 278,000 taxpayers left the UK in those two years, which seems a staggeringly high number.”
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