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BRITAIN'S richest gypsy has vowed never to return to the UK

Martin Everson

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Jan 2, 2018
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Britain's richest gypsy - whose fortune is actually somewhere near the £700m mark than the figure used in his popular nickname - has emigrated to the millionaire's tax shelter playground of Monaco in a huge blow to HMRC and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline to mark his departure from Britain, Best told us: 'It is true I will not pay any income tax….I am going to start a business here and have no intention of returning to the UK.'

Best - who is quick to point out that he will still be paying corporation tax on all his UK businesses despite his personal change of circumstances - says he was more motivated to leave the country by the state of what he calls 'Broken Britain'.

And he also blames a hostile environment to entrepreneurs like himself for which he blames politicians.

In a fascinating and revealing extended interview, his first since his move, the 54 year old flitted between delight at his new environment and his plans for the future and fury at what he sees as the failure of the UK.

He told us: 'Yes, it's true I will not be paying personal income tax by living on Monaco but all my companies are still in the UK so they will be paying tax.

'I have always paid my fair share of tax and will continue to do so. The only difference being here in Monaco is that I do not pay personal income tax. So when I get dividends from my companies there will be no income tax to pay.

'It is no longer Great Britain but Broken Britain. If you are a successful businessman, you are punished by the taxman and I have had enough of that. I have been chased for seven years and have had enough of that.


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Has the exodus started I wonder :confused:
 
'It is no longer Great Britain but Broken Britain. If you are a successful businessman, you are punished by the taxman and I have had enough of that. I have been chased for seven years and have had enough of that.
You can't blame him!
 
UPDATE: I was wrong another has spoken out and UK has lost listing of his business on LSE doh948"".

‘I am moving – that is it’: tycoon speaks out about the end of non-dom tax status​



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Bassim Haidar is house hunting. He owns “more than 10 properties” in central London, including a £20m five-bedroom flat near Chelsea’s Sloane Square. But he said he had decided to “urgently” leave the UK to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax after the government and Labour’s plan to scrap the “non-domicile” regime, which has allowed Haidar, and 68,800 other non-doms, to avoid paying UK tax on their overseas income for the past 225 years.

“I am moving – that is it,” said Haidar, an entrepreneur who has lived in the UK on-and-off since 2010. “There’s no two questions about this; we have looked at it from every angle and it just doesn’t make sense to stay here. This [the ending of the non-dom regime] is going to cost me millions and millions of dollars and pounds every year in taxes on money that I’ve actually made abroad and businesses that I’ve built abroad.”

Haidar is starting his search for a new house – and tax-domicile – this week. First in Monaco, the tax-free principality on France’s Côte dAzur, and then tax-free Dubai. “What’s the logic of me living in the UK when other countries are offering no taxes at all? In Monaco there are no taxes, and no inheritance

His decision to leave the UK has also led him to cancelling his plan to list Optasia, a financial services company he founded and claims is worth more than $1bn (£800m), on the London stock market. “I am supposed to be listing my company here, and was actually talking to the London Stock Exchange about listing [Optasia] here,” he said. “It’s going to be a billion-dollar IPO and I’ve just decided I’m not doing it here; it is too taxing for me to do it here.”


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I am telling you the rich non-dom are pissed and are gonna leave the UK. It is not that special a place to live to lose 40% of your wealth to IHT and pay 45% income tax on world wide income :confused:.
 
I am eager to see how this plays out for the UK in terms of attracting foreigners who want to stay for more than 4 years in UK under the new scheme. The hostile environment created to the wealthy and students coming to UK may backfire.

Warnings of economic damage to UK as international student numbers fall by a third​



Just hope the UK government can see the spending power and net gain to UK of wealthy foreigners and also foreign students living in towns up and down the UK :confused:.
 
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also foreign students living in towns up and down the UK
That is a two-sided coin. On one side - yes, the UK education is one of the prominent industries in this country and something to capitalise on. On the other - there are hundreds of obscure courses and educational organisations that function as visa stamping outlets mostly bringing students from third world countries which then bring several dependants with them. There was a statistic somewhere that average Hong Kong student in the UK brought less than 0.1 dependents per head while Nigerians brought 3 dependents on average.
The problem is that the government can not just race-shame or somehow discriminate against one or another group (unlike UAE for example), so they have to amend the rules and hope that will suffice. And of course media will not say anything about that as well, just regular "Tories bad, poor unis underfunded, teaching stuff will lose the jobs".

Let's see what will happen to Britain.
Not much I'm afraid. There are like 60000 non-doms, even if half will leave - nothing will happen. The western countries all are in the race to the bottom, so the UK only has to be in the tale of this race to still be a better option for many well-off people. Not everyone likes Dubai, Monaco is tiny and hella expensive and banana islands are even more exotic choice.
 
The problem is when UK government listen to research by LSE below they are given a false image of reality sadly :(.

Britain’s super rich unlikely to move to ‘boring’ and ‘culturally barren’ tax havens​


I think there are people within the UK government actually betting against the UK ;).
 
the gypsy guy:
'I have had 42 tax inquiries in the last seven years, and they have found nothing,' he said.

'But the files are never closed, and they keep coming back. I have had enough of it, and with other reasons why I have decided to quit.

'I am all for a fair tax system, but HMRC are not being fair, and they go after people like me and shake them like a money tree.'
I like this gypsy guy, at least he is outspoken and very expressive. Such a rare thing these days.
Smart move. Congrats to him. I am pretty sure he'll find plenty of ways to park all his cars and the helicopter too, without issues. smi(&%

84168531-13354221-image-a-4_1714241926398.jpg



The only small issue he will have is that he should really step up in the yacht game, as 27m in Monaco is barely average... but i am pretty sure with the tax savings he'll be able to do something about it soon smi(&%

charter-wyldecrest-yacht-1.jpg
 
I am eager to see how this plays out for the UK in terms of attracting foreigners who want to stay for more than 4 years in UK under the new scheme. The hostile environment created to the wealthy and students coming to UK may backfire.

Warnings of economic damage to UK as international student numbers fall by a third​



Just hope the UK government can see the spending power and net gain to UK of wealthy foreigners and also foreign students living in towns up and down the UK :confused:.
Hostile environment and the rest. Did you know a Brit needs to pay a fortune to bring his spouse over? thanks, I'll run my biz abroad lol.

Whilst in // thousands of 'students' bring their family?

Whilst the unelected government tries to fly people to Rwanda where the housing provided is 10 times better than the poor in Liverpool for example could ever dream of?

Britain where the conservatives have increased taxation at the highest level in a long time. and where Starmer is being given a list of demands from a minority including prayer in school???

But yeah, the problem was the Europeans... Don't get me wrong, I was only pro common market, the rest of the EU is irrelevant claptrap.

Rant over :)
 
I here you. Rich people in UK are looking at the politics of bashing the rich. But it will only be the non-doms who will find it easier to leave. Brits tend to grumble a lot and then do nothing. I just can't envision having i.e £1bn in wealth and getting hit by a bus tomorrow and having your estate hand over 40% in IHT to the tax man for nothing in return :confused:. Most sensible non-dom and ordinary people are just not willing to do that period especially with how the government spends money on the wrong things.

Perhaps the UK government can introduce an IHT tax cap of £1m and a personal income tax cap of £1m for everybody. This would be a fair system for everybody. It needs the numbers crunching but it could create an incentive for people to want to live and grow their wealth in UK. There is little else reason to live and work in the UK if your rich and mobile otherwise.
 
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