I'm a successful entrepreneur. If Labour brings in a wealth tax, I'm out

Telegraph

15-07-2025

To be crystal clear: if the UK implements a wealth tax many entrepreneurs like myself will leave the UK.
It is unmanageable as an entrepreneur to pay tax on unrealised gains. Any entrepreneur trying to raise money on an equity valuation puts themselves and their investors in danger of a massive tax bill based on the theoretical, paper value of the business.
Recently I completed a small acquisition. Part of the deal was for shares and we had to establish a relative value between the two companies. On paper, for the purpose of this deal my business was 'worth' £50 million.
In the case of this deal, a 2 per cent wealth tax on wealth above £10 million could suddenly create as much as £800,000 tax bill for the shareholders – even though they did not receive any money in this deal.
For high net worth investors, a 2 per cent wealth tax would make holding shares in a UK startup insanely risky. If the startup does a small strategic deal at a high valuation, they could find themselves owing a big tax bill without any actual gains.
Take the case of Revolut, headquartered in London and now worth over £50 billion on paper. Some early investors, founders or employees could have tax bills in the hundreds of millions despite having no cash off the table. There is no way Revolut would have been able to achieve what it has done if every round of investment or stock option had to consider the implications of a wealth tax on unrealised gains.
This proposed wealth tax will crush the UK startup scene. No serious entrepreneur or investors will want to grow a company in Britain. Any startup showing signs of being worth more than the wealth tax threshold will be told to get out while they can.
This tax tips the risk-to-reward ratio of building a business in the UK out of kilter. The prospect of building wealth in the UK would be so much worse than many other places. In a globally competitive world, the UK would not be a viable jurisdiction to grow a startup and investors would look elsewhere.
Leaving the UK is not hard for a digital business. Payments are online, workers are remote, very few things rely on a physical place. There are firms that specialise in supporting this type of restructuring. Many countries have discovered that the way to make more in tax revenue is to be globally competitive and attractive to entrepreneurs and investors. Dozens of countries offer special visas for entrepreneurs and investors. They are rolling out the red carpet with tax incentives, funding and business support.
Entrepreneurs create jobs around them, growth in the economy and valuable innovations. If an entrepreneur leaves, all of that goes with them and existing taxes they pay in the UK drop to zero. When their big payday comes and they do realise the financial gains for their decades of hard work, the UK would see none of it.
Dozens of the best entrepreneurs I know now live in Lisbon, Dubai, Milan, Malta, Hong Kong and Austin. Every month another great business builder is buying a one way ticket out. They move for two reasons. Firstly, the UK has become one of the highest taxed places to live. Not only are we taxed to the extremes just to live and work here, we also have the looming threat of sky high inheritance tax if we die here. Secondly it's the attitude towards wealth. Gone are the days when wealthy people in Britain were typically landed gentry gripping generational wealth from the battle of Hastings.
Many wealthy people are self made; they start with nothing, delay gratification for decades to build what they have. The UK no longer celebrates this achievement, instead of being seen as wealth creators they are labelled as wealth hoarders. It's a stark contrast to many other places where aspiration and achievement are still celebrated.
The advocates for a wealth tax never take into consideration the message it sends about Britain, signalling that this country is anti-wealth is a signpost that points towards widespread poverty. They also seem to ignore that the wealthy and the highly skilled have options – people respond to high taxes by taking measures to avoid them and in this case it would send some of the most productive citizens abroad.
When people in the top 5 per cent who pay 50 per cent of taxes leave, their tax bills will fall onto the middle income earners. I urge the government to publicly state that wealth taxes are off the table before the mere threat of them causes more capital flight. The entrepreneurs are worth far more to this country than a 2 per cent wealth tax that appears to punish the rich but ends up punishing everyone else.