The new 50% tax rate has caused financiers and entrepeneurs to quit the UK at a rate of nearly 10 a week, according to figures released yesterday.
Research by Philip Beresford, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, using information available from Companies House, shows that the number of bosses of UK companies registering in the Isle of Man and the Channel Island tax havens of Jersey and Guernsey has risen by nearly 500 in the past year, to 6,729 .
Hedge-fund managers, property tycoons, bankers and people who made their money setting up companies organising private healthcare, call centres and luxury holidays are leaving the UK.
Stephen Hedgecock, a partner in Altis, a £1bn hedge-fund company, said: “The UK model is broken.” Thirty-five of his staff have relocated to Jersey, with only a few remaining in London, he said.
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“It’s not just the 50% rate – it’s National Insurance, the treatment of pensions, everything. It’s just a ridiculous amount of taxation,” he said.
Earlier this year the Taxpayers’ Alliance expressed concern that the 50% tax rate would increase unemployment if it caused the UK to lose top talent – financiers, entrepreneurs, people who start up small businesses through the knock-on effect on the talent pool for recruiters.
