UK sees “non-dom” departures as £30,000 charge kicks in

HM Revenue & Customs reported, on 13 January 2011, that the number of UK "non-domiciled" residents had declined from 139,000 to 123,000 in the year prior after the launch of the £30,000 remittance basis charge in April 2008.

McGrigors, the law firm that secured the figures under a Freedom of Information request, said the 11.5% decline was the first for five years and was likely to have been repeated in 2010 as more long-term non-doms became liable to the change.

The UK coalition government has pledged a review to assess whether non-doms were making “a fair contribution to reducing the deficit” and a Treasury spokesman said last night that the review was “ongoing” and a further announcement would be made at the appropriate time.

About 5,400 people paid the £30,000 non-dom levy for the 2008/09 tax year, more than the 4,000 predicted by the Treasury prior to the tax’s introduction. This collected around £162 million, with £350 million forecast for 2009/10. The Treasury has estimated that non-doms pay around £4 billion in income tax each year, on top of the tax they pay on capital gains on UK assets, stamp duty and value added tax on spending, which brings the estimated total to £7 billion.