Latest news with #RobinHoodTax
Metro
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Farage's £250k 'Robin Hood tax' is a free ride for non-doms, says reader
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments. Nigel Farage's so-called 'Robin Hood Tax' is an outrageous, Sheriff of Nottingham-style con (Metro, Tue). The Reform UK 'Britannia Card' idea is that non-doms, instead of paying tax annually like the rest of us, make a one-off payment of £250,000, which 'Hood' Farage promises will be used to benefit 'the poor'. According to the Chartered Institute of Taxation (using figures from HMRC) the tax yield from non-doms for the year ending April 5, 2022, averaged out at £120,000 each. So Farage's one-off payment amounts to just over two years of tax at 2021-2022 rates followed by a permanent free ride at the expense of other taxpayers. Public services, already cut to the bone, will get even worse and the poor will suffer to support the wealthy. Paul Johnson, Ilford Sir Keir Starmer has described Palestine Action group throwing paint over fighter planes at RAF Brize Norton (Metro, Tue) as 'disgraceful'. He is right, the lack of security that allowed it to happen is indeed appalling and, as the leader of the government that takes responsibility for it, the buck clearly stops with him. With his new-found humility, the prime minister could perhaps now thank the organisation that exposed the weakness. What if they had been terrorists? Phil Goater, Sunbury-on-Thames To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video How do you find a secret base in Iran? You look for the building guarded by a man with an AK-47. How do you find a secret base in Israel? You look for the building guarded by a man with an Uzi machine gun. How do you find a secret base in the UK? You look for the building guarded by nobody – they're all asleep and the personnel officer is in charge. Jeff Sutton, Erdington Dennis Fitzgerald (MetroTalk, Tue) claims we 'can't bomb people into peace, only into surrender'. He's wrong. When we bombed Nazi Germany into surrender, it led to the birth of a peaceful and democratic country. Why should Iran be any different? Most Iranians hate the murderous regime that stole their country 46 years ago. Israel understands this. That's why the Israeli Air Force targeted Iran's notorious Evin prison – not to harm civilians but to help those oppressed by the Ayatollahs' regime escape and get a chance at freedom. David Frencel, London Are you able to consider this witticism in keeping with the recent 'doctor jokes' theme for your excellent newspaper? More Trending Ronnie O'Sullivan went to the doctor recently and said, 'Doctor, I feel like a snooker ball.' The doc replied, 'Get to the back of the cue.' Stevie 'Whirlwind' Duggers, Sheffield Another doctor joke. I went to the doctor today to get a vaccine. Nervous, I asked, 'Is it going to hurt?' The doctor said, 'It will hurt a bit today but tomorrow will be fine.' Immediately I replied, 'Can we reschedule for tomorrow, then?' Pedro, Hammersmith MORE: The Metro daily cartoon by Guy Venables MORE: Met Police boss grilled into apologising to ITV's Selina Scott after vicious mugging MORE: Drug kingpins guilty of plot to murder rival and smuggling £5,000,000 of cocaine
Telegraph
23-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Nigel Farage's Robin Hood tax is nothing more than a gimmick
It will empty out the smarter restaurants of Milan. It will leave the towering apartment blocks of Dubai searching for tenants. And the glistening beaches of the Caribbean will suddenly be a lot emptier. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has set out an ambitious plan to turn Britain back into a global hub for the mega-rich and bring back all the entrepreneurs who have fled. Even better, he claims his proposals will raise money to help the low-paid. But what looks too good to be true often is. As ever, there's a catch: the scheme will create as many problems as it will fix – and it looks like another example of fantasy economics from Reform. As it prepares for a potential Farage-run government, Reform is finally starting to set out some genuine policies. This week it will unveil a bold plan for bringing back the non-doms. Its 'Britannia card' will offer the world's wealthy, as well as returning tax exiles, a very attractive deal. In return for a £250,000 payment they will be exempt their offshore income from UK taxes for 10 years and to shield them from inheritance taxes for two decades. The money raised will be used to fund a dividend paid to the lowest earning 10pc of workers, estimated at £600 to £1,000 a year paid directly into their bank accounts. The 'Robin Hood' tax will raise lots of money from the rich and transfer it to the poor. It is, at least according to the always-upbeat Farage, a win-win for everyone. Of course, there are lots of good points to be made about the Reform plan. The seeming Tory-Labour consensus that the non-doms were a problem has finally been shattered. Farage quite rightly recognises that the exodus of non-doms has drained money, wealth and jobs out of London and elsewhere, and that has turned into a real problem. Likewise, the UK will need to find a way of tempting back all the entrepreneurs who have flooded out of the UK since the catastrophic Labour Budget last October.
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Farage's ‘Robin Hood tax' would cost UK £34bn a year, warns tax expert
Nigel Farage 's plans to introduce a 'Robin Hood tax' to attract the wealthy back to the UK would cost the economy £34bn a year, a leading tax expert has warned. Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates has hit out at the Britannia card scheme proposal, which would allow wealthy people to pay a one-off fee of £250,000 and replace the former non-dom scheme scrapped by Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt and current Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves. Reform UK believes that the scheme would produce around £2.5bn a year which it plans to hand out as a dividend of £1,000 to those on the lowest incomes. But in a scathing assessment, Mr Neidle warned: 'We believe there are three very serious problems with the policy. 'First, it would discourage highly skilled professionals from moving here – they couldn't afford the £250,000 and would face a much worse tax outlook than they ever have in the UK – and worse than most other comparable countries. The Reform UK proposal would make the UK uncompetitive. 'Second, all the recent changes to the non-dom regime mean that any Government would struggle to persuade the very wealthy that the 'Britannia card' would really provide a lifelong exemption, so take-up would be very limited. 'Third, and most seriously, the card 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. That would have to be funded by either tax increases or spending cuts.' However, a defiant Mr Farage and Reform's former chairman Zia Yusuf insisted that the scheme is already garnering interest and will 'attract new money' to the UK from those who have left the country or do not want to come because of high taxes. Mr Farage complained: 'Over the last few years, a political narrative that has got stronger and stronger is tax the rich.' He claimed that Tory and Labour governments 'didn't understand human behavior. Didn't understand the sheer mobility that modern day entrepreneurs and wealthy people have the last year for which we have full figures shows that 10,800 wealthy people left the country, some of them non dons, some of them British too.' Mr Yusuf warned that the current tax regimes are seeing investors flee the the UK. He said: 'We have to be honest about one of the key ingredients as to how one makes that happen. One key ingredient is that we need the wealthiest job creators, wealth creators and entrepreneurs to be here in the UK. And right now, the opposite is happening.' He pointed to a Bloomberg report which suggested 4,000 company directors have left the UK since Labour came to power. Mr Yusuf also pointed out that non-doms had previously contributed at least another £8.9bn in direct taxation from other taxes each year. He said: 'This card will be available to foreign internationally wealthy people who are going to come here and create jobs and take risk, as Nigel says, they will pay a landing fee of a quarter of a million pounds. 'So the UK will become incredibly attractive to the internationally wealthy, but they must contribute immediately to the prosperity of the country and make a direct contribution into the pockets and the bank balances of the lowest 10 per cent of earners in full time work.'
The Sun
22-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Nigel Farage vows to slap rich foreigners with £250k ‘Robin Hood' tax – and hand the money to poor Brits
NIGEL Farage will today pledge a Robin Hood tax to take £250,000 from rich foreigners and hand it to the poor. The Reform UK boss plans to slap a one-off fee on the newcomers and returning Brits who want to settle in the UK. The 'entry contribution' would target non-doms — high net-worth individuals who live in Britain but pay no tax on overseas income. Unlike most levies, every penny would go to the lowest-paid full-time workers, HMRC handing it out as a tax-free bonus. In a speech, Mr Farage — who has made it clear he wants Reform to represent those who 'set their alarm clocks in the morning' — will vow to restore the social contract between rich and poor. He will argue that his plan will boost the country's hardest grafters. A party source told The Sun: 'Since the 2008 crash, the Bank of England pumped billions into the economy — but the working class didn't see a penny. 'This is about repairing the social contract. 'For once, the working class should be getting the bonus.' 1 Nobody who enters UK illegally should EVER be allowed to stay – it's totally unfair on law-abiding, taxpaying Brits But the Tories last night slammed Reform's announcement as 'fantasy economics'. Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: 'The British public need a real plan for putting more money in their pockets. "Reform's promises are ruinously irresponsible.'
Times
22-06-2025
- Business
- Times
Reform unveils ‘Robin Hood' policy to stop non-doms fleeing UK
Nigel Farage will announce a radical Robin Hood-style tax policy that will offer non-doms the chance to pay a £250,000 fee to shield them from tax, with the proceeds going directly to the lowest paid. Under the new Reform policy non-domiciles — UK residents whose permanent home is abroad — would not be taxed on any wealth, income or capital gains earned overseas. They would also avoid paying inheritance tax under the plans, which are set out in a policy document seen by The Times. Non-doms would be handed a new 'Britannia Card' and qualify for the tax exemptions by paying a £250,000 'landing fee'. They would be able to renew it every ten years by paying the fee again. Reform said that 100 per cent of the revenue raised would be transferred by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) directly to the bank accounts of the lowest-earning 10 per cent of full-time workers. It would be tax-free and transferred within 90 days of the end of each tax year, and is likely to be dubbed Reform's 'Robin Hood tax' for redistributing money from the rich to the poor. Reform said about 2.5 million workers earning a full-time salary of less than than £23,000 would be given £600 if 6,000 non-doms paid for the Britannia Card. The amount of money would rise and fall depending on how many non-doms took up the new tax offer. Britannia Card holders would still be charged tax on a remittance basis, meaning they would be taxed in the normal way on any UK-sourced income and gains. Reform said the policy is designed to reverse the exodus of wealthy individuals following increasingly onerous rules placed on non-doms. • Naomi Wilkes: Wealthy should think twice before leaving Britain Rachel Reeves is considering watering down plans to scrap the non-dom tax regime amid concerns about the exodus. The chancellor is weighing up reversing her decision to charge inheritance tax on their global assets. Reform has undertaken analysis on a range of scenarios of its new non-dom policy. In a low-uptake scenario, in which 6,000 non-doms paid for a Britannia Card each year, the policy would raise £1.5 billion annually. This would lead to £600 going to the 2.5 million low-paid workers each year — an annual take-home pay rise of more than 3 per cent and the equivalent of an extra week's net wages. Under a higher uptake scenario in which 10,000 cards are issued each year, the annual payment for the lowest-paid workers would be £1,000, according to Reform's analysis. The party said that the move would favour workers in Wales, Scotland and the northeast of England where baseline pay is lowest and where there is a larger share of low-paid jobs. Reform said the policy would create a 'transparent link' between the richest and poorest in the UK and would 'restore the social contract' between them. It said it would also restore Britain's competitiveness and help repair the public finances. Farage, who will announce the radical new tax policy at a press conference in Westminster on Monday, is expected to say: 'We are going to encourage those that have left to come back. They are entrepreneurs, wealth creators and big spenders. We are going to repair the social contract.' • Rachel Reeves reconsiders non-dom tax changes to halt exodus The announcement is the latest attempt by Reform to set out a detailed blueprint to show it can form credible government policies and be trusted to run the public finances. An Ipsos Mori poll at the weekend suggested that Reform is on course to win an outright majority at the next election after finding its poll lead over Labour has increased to nine points. It found support for Reform on 34 per cent, Labour on 25 and the Conservatives on just 15 per cent — the highest level of support for Farage's party in any poll to date. Farage has faced increasing scrutiny of his party's spending plans after he set out tax cuts and spending increases last month that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has costed at between £50 to £80 billion a year. • Rich List tycoons tell Rachel Reeves her tax will kill family farms His pledges to increase the income tax personal allowance to £20,000, scrap the two-child limit on benefit payments, reinstate the winter fuel allowance in full and introduce more generous transferable marriage tax allowances have opened up key dividing lines with both Labour and the Conservatives. Labour responded by accusing him of a 'return to the chaos of Liz Truss'. Farage has rebutted the charge by insisting he can pay for it by scrapping net zero and cutting waste and said the former prime minister had erred by failing to propose any cuts in public spending alongside her tax cuts. Reform said that its plans to introduce a new non-dom tax regime will prevent the 'record-breaking and alarming exodus of high-spending, high-taxpaying residents' that it said had caused 'huge collateral damage' to the British economy. It pointed to a study by Oxford Economics, which found that the non-doms it surveyed had invested £8.4 billion in the UK economy, with each investing an average of £118 million. Reeves has announced that a much less generous residence-based system will replace the non-dom tax regime. The plans go further than an announcement by the then Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt in March last year to phase out the non-dom tax regime. It has led to a sharp increase in business leaders moving out of the UK. An analysis of company filings showed more than 4,400 directors have left in the past year, including a jump in numbers over the past few months. Departures in April were 75 per cent higher than in the same month last year. The pace of exits was highest in finance, insurance and property, all sectors popular with non-doms. Lakshmi Mittal, the steel billionaire, is among those said to be considering leaving the country because of the crackdown.
