01/09/17

UK:Tax paid by non-doms exceeds £9bn

Non-domiciled taxpayers in Britain contributed more than £9 billion in 2014-15, a rise of 1 per cent over the previous fiscal year, reports The Times.

The latest figures released by Revenue & Customs yesterday showed that the 121,300 registered non-doms in the UK together paid a total of £9.3 billion in income, national insurance and capital gains taxes.

Non-doms are generally people who are resident in the UK but claim their domicile is overseas. By using this status they pay no tax on their offshore income and capital gains unless the money is brought back into the country. This is the first time that the revenue has voluntarily issued such information about the number of non-doms, which regions they live in and how much they pay in tax.

According to HMRC 85,400 of the registered non-doms were UK residents in 2014-15, meaning that on average they each paid about £105,000 to the taxman. Non-doms based in London and the southeast contributed 86 per cent of all the tax paid by these people, according to the data.

High profile non-doms have included Lakshmi Mittal, the steel tycoon, and Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club.

Since 2008, people claiming non-dom status have had to pay a “remittance charge” if they have lived in Britain for seven years.

The HMRC data showed that only 5,100 non-doms paid the remittance charge in 2014-15, in an indication they were making use of the ability to keep their offshore income outside the UK tax net.

In April, permanent non-dom status was abolished for anyone who has lived in Britain for 15 of the past 20 years.

“Non-dom taxpayers make a huge contribution to HM Treasury and the UK economy as a whole, far more than most people realise,” Steven Porter, a partner at Pinsent Masons, the international law firm, said.