Nigel Farage's plan to restore non-dom tax breaks in exchange for £250k given to UK poorest 'could cost taxpayer £34billion'
The Reform leader unveiled the Britannia card today, which would allow non-doms to live in Britain but pay no tax on their foreign income and property if he wins power.
They would instead have to pay a one-off £250,000 'Entry Contribution' that Reform says would be passed on to the UK's lowest-paid workers.
Mr Farage was forced to deny he was lurching to the left to woo Labour voters in the north and Midlands to Reform as he unveiled the scheme.
He said he was no 'Robin Hood stealing from the rich' and said he hoped 'tens of thousands of people will come to the United Kingdom on this ticket'.
Tax Policy Associates' Dan Neidle warned today that the scheme would 'provide a very large and expensive tax windfall to a small number of very wealthy people who are already here'.
'Office for Budget Responsibility data shows that this would amount to £34bn of lost Government revenue over five years,' he said.
'That would have to be funded by either tax increases or spending cuts.'
He also suggested it would discourage highly skilled professionals from coming to the UK because they would not be able to pay the fee.
Reform may struggle to convince people that the fee would last a lifetime, given the recent upheaval to the non-dom system, he added.
At a press conference, flanked by Reform's Doge boss Zia Yusuf, Mr Farage was asked if he was attempting to give low-income workers free money to win over their votes.
'Nice try, but the idea that I'm somehow putting forward a profoundly left-wing concept today could not be further from the truth,' he said.
'We're saying we want people who make loads of money to come in to Britain in huge numbers and pay lots and lots of tax and buy lots of houses and spend lots of money.'
Reform is choosing to help those who work and have been 'hammered', he added.
Asked whether he had an overall costing for the policy, given Mr Neidle's analysis, he replied: 'Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I'm not clever enough to answer any of that.
'That just sounds completely off the wall nonsense. I'm really sorry, but I think what we've got here is a very attractive offer.
'People are fleeing this country in droves. Our economy is in trouble. There are fears of wealth taxes coming in. All the mood music is bad.'
The scheme is designed to make the UK a more attractive place to wealthy individuals, as it would reinstate the non-dom regime which Labour abolished in April.
Non-domiciled status allows people who live in the UK, but who have a permanent home elsewhere, to only pay tax on the money they earn in the UK.
It can be used to shield any overseas income and profits from UK taxes, unless they are transferred into the country.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly seeking to soften the changes, however, after fears that it is leading to an exodus of wealth creators.
It comes after three of Britain's richest men – including a top investment banker -became the latest to join an exodus of the super-rich amid a government crackdown on wealthy non-doms.
In April, Ian and Richard Livingstone, brothers who own a £9bn property empire in the UK and abroad, an online casino and plush Monte Carlo hotel, were revealed as having quit the UK for Monaco, according to corporate documents.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs' top banker, Richard Gnodde, worth over £130m, is understood to have ditched London for Milan.
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