The Chancellor’s announcement in his budget for 2008 regarding non-doms will only please two categories of UK non-dom tax payers.
1.- Any non-dom making under £36k taxable in the UK and over £75k outside the UK (non remmitted income). I believe they will be delighted to pay the flat tax of £30k per year and still keep their tax payable under the 40% income tax rate. For the group of people making over £167k outside the UK and not remmitting that income, the glorious UK will still remain as one of the lower tax jurisdictions in the EU, under OECD accepted standards.
2.- The non dom tax payers who have been in the UK for only seven years will get one extra year’s grace prior to pay the £30,000 tax charge. Today's budget suggests that the residency test before the charge will be extended to eight out of eleven years, rather than eight out of ten.
Regarding the 90 days-a-year residence rule, a day is now only counted from arrival in the UK at midnight. The general rule is that If a UK resident goes abroad permanently, he will be treated as remaining resident and ordinarily resident if his visits to the UK average 91 days or more a year.
Over the last budgets the announcements from the Chancellor are targeting the extended non-dom population in the UK and those emigrating from the UK. The question for me is how succesful has been the HMRC in terms of financial succes for the Treasure versus the havoc that is creating among the many non doms and expats that have been and still are contributing to the UK in terms of business and financial acccumen and intellectual capital. I invite comments on this one.
As the Financial Times published the day when the budget was annunced, Deepak Malhotra, who advises South Asian clients for Grant Thornton said important concessions had been made on rules for remaining non-resident, as well as the non-dom tax regime.
“Non-dom clients will be more positive about things than before,” he said. “But it would have been better to consult first, rather than issue draconian proposals that upset a lot of people.”
Mr Malhotra thought the final proposals might help lift the uncertainty that has hung over non-dom taxation for many years, with proposals repeatedly aired and then shelved. “The promise of no further change in this parliament or the next should reassure businesses and individuals.”
