To quote a senior international tax accountant, “Nobody should live in the UK if they’ve got any money.” The storm clouds are gathering and the importance of getting the right advice is greater than ever if you want to avoid costly mistakes, says Mark Clubb (pictured), chairman of TEAM.
First, let’s consider the proposed abolition of non-dom status. I do not believe that the Treasury fully understands the repercussions of removing that status. The flight risk and potential lower tax take is real. This status is one of the oldest in the UK, originally created to allow London to be an international trading centre and the principle has allowed the US Goldman Sachs banker to live and work here facing only US inheritance tax and contributing to the UK economy. He’s not going to stick around.
Just as concerning is the prospect of the abolition of business property relief. This has always been essential to estate planning in family companies and in farming where you could pass the business down to children with business property relief. The unknown is, if this relief is abolished and the asset gets passed on, is there a tax to be paid on the notional gain in the transferred assets? I think this has significant implications for the belly of the UK economy, which is mid- sized, privately owned companies, not to mention the land-owning farmers.
The challenge will be to pass down these sorts of assets without incurring a huge tax bill. Imagine talking to a 65 year-old, third generation business owner looking after his Midlands-based haulage business. Maybe has a farm on the side, a couple of pubs, almost like a mini holding company. This individual might not stick around, and, with the abolition of business property relief, a lot of farmers will just give up.
So, usher in a new era and a jump in the number of UK domiciled individuals thinking about heading offshore. This is complex. If you are UK-domiciled, you are subject to inheritance tax on death and capital gains tax on any profits made from the disposal of assets in the UK, wherever you live and whatever your nationality.
So how do you move domicile? To move your domicile, you need to sever all ties with the UK. Where it’s difficult is for people who want to move their domicile but want to keep their business in the UK. You cannot own a property, derive any income from the UK, or even scatter your ashes in the UK (as an -UK national found to his family’s cost). You need to be able to demonstrate that you have made permanent ties in that country.
Once you have done that for 3-5 years, you are notionally “cleansed” from HMRC and you have moved domicile. Theoretically, under the current rules, you can go back to the UK as a non-dom. At the moment, it is unclear how this might unfold.
Advisers are bad at this. The industry tends to suggest to the client that there is some kind of silver bullet. The streets are paved with Golden Visas! Lower tax rates, no tax on worldwide income, wealth and inheritance tax benefits are but a few of the attractions before considering the many lifestyle attractions and options of citizenship. One adviser says move to Portugal, one says move to Greece or maybe Malta. But It is a complex problem and depends on the individual.
No-one is really able to forecast with certainty what taxes will be applied in most countries. Tax regimes can ebb and flow with politics and changes in governments. The mutterings in Portugal in 2022/23 were of an abolition of NHR status but towards the end of 2023 the government relaxed this cliff and this regime will likely be replaced by another.
And as Martin O’Malley at Neba Private clients notes: “The UK government appears to be planning a shift from a domicile-based system to a residence-based IHT system, which would keep a person’s worldwide assets under UK IHT for up to 10 years after leaving the UK. But could this mean that after 10 years of living abroad, non-UK assets would no longer fall under the UK IHT net, providing an opportunity for expats?”
This is an area where robo-advice certainly cannot help. There are many different nuances, and what makes it even more difficult is that no one knows what the new rules will be, and HMRC’s stance has, at best, been rather grey and unpredictable anyway -almost decided on a case- by-case basis.
TEAM specialises in providing advice to expatriates from our international network. We expect wealth migration to increase as Western governments attempt to fill funding gaps, with changes in tax regimes targeting the wealthy. We begin by saying you need to start by taking the right tax advice. There are 100 countries, 60% in Europe, that have residency by investment. The options, permutations and pitfalls are vast and require careful consideration. As one thing is for certain – you don’t want your client to fall foul of HMRC.
By Mark Clubb, chairman of TEAM
