Indian bizmen may quit UK over new tax proposals

Darling’s proposal to levy 30,000 pounds charge on non-domiciled taxpayers has generated much concern among Indian and other non-domiciled entrepreneurs and businessmen in the UK and some of them are reported to be preparing to quit Britain.

In a letter to the Financial Times, the UK wing of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) said that Darling’s proposals would undermine Britain’s attraction to thousands of investors and entrepreneurs from the Indian subcontinent.

Prominent Indian business leaders in Britain told the paper that they believed many thousands will leave the country if the changes go ahead as planned.

They are also angry at the short notice that has left them little time to decide what to do next.

The non-domicile rule is a tax loophole that made Britain a favourite destination for the world’s super-rich, industrialists and businessmen. It was framed during the days of the British empire.

It allows some residents of the UK to cite another country as their real domicile and then, unlike all other residents, to pay UK tax on their earnings in the rest of the world only if they remit the money to the UK. If they do not remit it to the UK, no tax is levied.

TIE, the world’s largest not-for-profit entrepreneurial group, said the proposals put at risk the jobs of thousands of British people employed by businesses owned by non-domicile people from the Indian subcontinent.

Entrepreneurs of Indian and Pakistani origin have built substantial businesses in the UK since they began arriving in numbers 50 years ago.

Not all of them claim non-domicile status, but most retain links with their countries of origin.