...the tax raised will not be as much as is expected. In the long term, as rich people leave Britain, it may even result in a lower tax take. What happens elsewhere? Let us take some of the countries where economic growth has been fastest. The capital gains tax rate in both Hong Kong and Singapore is zero.Even in China, where the image of the late Chairman Mao, its former communist leader, is prominently placed on bank notes, the rate varies between 10 and 25 per cent. Does anyone really expect the people who are successful, taxpaying and job-creating to hang around in a country with a top rate of 50 per cent?
Even now there are plenty of tax exiles. Take Zug, the province of Switzerland which has particularly low tax rates, where property prices are high because of the influx of British financiers. And the chief executive of HSBC has made his base in Hong Kong. But this will not just affect the financiers. It will affect most of us.
The above is from an article I wrote for the Daily Express.
Postscript: See also this article by Richard Wellings.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Tax and growth
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How will it effect "most of us", is this the Daily Mail theory that people on £50k are middle class when the real middle is "23k. £50k is near the top and those paying capital gains will be near the top too.
Why not do an article on tax evasion? That costs more than benefit fraud.
Posted by: Nigel at May 21, 2010 06:14 PM