The government's proposals on the taxation of non doms will impose a heavy penalty on some of the lowest paid migrant workers. They face being taxed on their worldwide income, losing their personal tax allowances or, together with their employers, being tied up in a paperwork nightmare. The Association of Labour Providers has made these points in its response to the government consultation document. It has also described the proposals as unworkable.
Mark Boleat, Chairman of the ALP, said -
"All the attention on the non dom issue has been on the better off sections of the community who would have no difficulty in paying additional tax. However, the real losers will be low paid migrant workers who work part of the year in the UK and the rest of the year in their home country. Under the proposals any such workers who are resident in the UK and have just £1,000 of unremitted foreign income face either being taxed on their worldwide income or losing their personal tax allowances. This begs many questions. Short-term migrants do not count how many days they are in the UK. So are they resident or not and how is HMRC going to tell them? Then the employers of migrant workers do not distinguish between who is a migrant and who is not when dealing with HMRC so how does HMRC propose to inform each migrant of what it is that is expected of them?"
The proposals have been badly thought out and clearly the position of low paid migrant workers has not even been considered. This is no way to make policy covering hundred of thousands of workers."
