Now that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have thrown their hats out of the EU ring, maybe we should think of how we could make our country and economy great again.
Switzerland is a safe haven for investors. Lorne Baring of B Capital based in Geneva and London in last weekend’s Spectator said ‘Around 35% of clients are UK based non-doms, so they need to put their money to work in a safe place that’s outside, but not far from Britain, and a place that is in Europe, but not part of the EU. Switzerland fits the bill perfectly.
It also has the ability to attract wealthy individuals to live there and bring with them their wealth for the country to manage.
As a result Switzerland has one of the highest wealth per head.
If Johnson and Gove were to win the referendum, ousted Cameron and Osbourne and had the guts and far sight to do so – they could easily shape the UK along the lines of Switzerland; outside of the EU.
What would I do if asked?
1. Extend the exemptions for remitting monies into the UK tax free, to encourage non doms not only to live here but to bring with them their monies to invest in and with the UK. In this way the country would attract monies out of Switzerland to be invested in the UK for the benefit of the UK economy.
2. Make the remittance basis of taxation fairer. Currently if Francois who is UK resident but non UK domiciled received an inheritance from his uncle, on which he had earned no interest or made any gain – this money could be remitted into the UK totally tax free, if Francois were eligible for the remittance payment of taxation. This is because only income or gains which are remitted to the UK are taxable – pure capital is not.
Huge amounts of time and money go into people like Francois trying to keeping their capital pure, so that when it is remitted into the UK no tax is payable. Similarly, HMRC spends huge amounts of time and money trying to prove that Francois has in some way got it wrong. If it succeeds in proving Francois has remitted taxable monies he will then have to pay interest and penalties on what he did not declare.
All monies whether capital, income or gains should be subject to income tax when remitted, with broad exemptions for monies invested in the UK; property, equity, debt or alternative investments. This is fair because it taxes what they spend, but not what they invest, in the UK.
This simple change would cut expenses and make the UK much more attractive for non-doms to live and bring with them their monies
3. Remove the levy on the remittance basis of taxation.
4. Change the excluded property settlement rules for inheritance tax. Currently if a trust is set up offshore and is treated as an ‘excluded property settlement’ all assets treated as non UK situs are outside the scope of inheritance tax. Why not therefore treat such trusts with trustees and management in the UK resident as if they were offshore. In this way excluded property trusts would be much more transparent to everyone, would create jobs for our trained and skilled trustees and bring more monies into the UK to be managed. The UK invented the trust but we do so little trust work now in the UK. All disputes affecting such trusts should also have access to our UK court system.
5. Introduce an amnesty, for all non doms who bring their excluded property settlements onshore. Most excluded property settlements were set up such a long time ago that not only are records impossible to find, but also the distinction between capital and income has become impossibly blurred. For all excluded property settlements which migrate to the UK there could be an amnesty for any tax liability incurred as a result of inaccuracies in accounting and administration. This would be particularly attractive when the Common Reporting Standard becomes fully operational in 2017 when taxpayers would prefer to locate their wealth to a jurisdiction where the administration and compliance rules are well understood and properly applied.
6. Change the Stamp Duty Land Tax on residential properties to a more modest rate. Currently the rate introduced by George Osborne is at 12% (15% for second homes) which has had a negative impact on the collection of tax. It would appear that the tax take for Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea, which used to account for more than Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Northern England has since 2013/14 fallen by half. This is a great example of the Laffer curve, which shows that if the rate of tax is put up to a level at which the taxpayer will not pay the collection of tax goes down.
Our country needs to find the rate of stamp duty land tax at which the maximum tax is collected and not just what rate is likely to win the most votes.
If you have any comments please please call on 020 3740 7423 or email svetlana@garnhamfos.com
If you think any or all of the above could increase your ability to win business in the UK and thereby improve our economy please forward this to your MP or to any influential politician, journalist or friend so that we can start to formulate a strategy post Brexit.