Let's keep the wealthy foreign investors on board

By Amanda Vigar, Managing Partner, V&A Bell Brown LLP

Britain is open for business… or is it? It certainly should be with unemployment rising and the economy in the doldrums.

At a time when this country needs more taxpayers and more wealth-producing, industry- investing people, we’ve managed to make rich foreigners feel less welcome and it looks like they’re taking their money elsewhere. The country needs that like a hole in the head!

According to HM Revenue and Customs’ own figures, the number of non-domiciled taxpayers has fallen by 2,000 in a year. It may have something to do with the £30,000 annual non-dom levy they’re being asked to pay for the privilege of putting their stake in the UK.

According to a Freedom of Information request, the damning stats show that the number of non-doms has plummeted from 140,000 in 2008 to 116,000 now. These are just the ones that are paying the levy – so likely to be on the wealthy end of the spectrum!

This group of highly informed, highly mobile, enormously wealthy wealth producers is, not surprisingly, also very well informed. And they have highly skilled people to do their sums for them, and they have decided that the UK is not the proposition it once was – we’re not longer seen as a “light touch” tax and regulation economy.

Foreign investment is always important to a successful economy and the need to stay attractive to international money is imperative to our country’s recovery and growth.

The £30,000 annual tax levy on non-doms who have been in the UK for between seven and 12 years is not helping us. The levy is only part of a raft of other tax measures, introduced or being discussed, which are gaining us a reputation for being less welcoming to people with real spending power than we once were.

We need to keep access to investment open and easy. To do otherwise seems contrary to the ideals of a free market and at odds with our role as an international centre for investment and ideas.

These non-domicile taxpayers will continue to take to their luxury launches and abandon the good ship Britannia if they feel the weather is no longer set fair. While they’re aboard, they will invest in the UK and create jobs. When they’re abroad, they will invest their money abroad. Time for a change of tack!