As the year began, there were sighs of relief, the threat of Jeremy Corbyn running the country was gone and my clients put away their files on where they would emigrate to if taxes spiralled out of control.
The last time the UK saw a mass exodus of wealthy Brits was around 1966 when they left to escape Harold Wilson’s super tax. Many went to live in Jersey which was how our Podcast Professional of the week – Mark Clubb Senior Investment Manager at TEAM in Jersey found himself living on the island and as a young man, he hated it.
His father a wealthy hotel and restaurant owner emigrated with his family to Jersey where corporation tax was 0% and the personal rate of tax only 20%.
At the beginning of the year, investment manager Mark was expecting markets and investments to return to normal. He, like so many others, could not have foreseen tens of billions of dollars being wiped off industry revenues, share prices tumbling and Asia and Europe treated as ‘no-go’ areas.
Mark Clubb as an investment manager now has to try to predict how markets will respond as outbreaks of the virus are reported in more and more countries.
Airline ticket sales around the world have been sharply hit as industry events across the world are cancelled. Switzerland banned its international car show, and Shanghai’s fashion show was held online..
Companies are also imposing business travel restrictions. Shares in Easyjet have fallen by a third last week and IAG which owns Iberia and BA slumped by a quarter over last week and have since continued to fall.
However, as Mark Clubb of TEAM notes in his podcast if your investments are held and managed in a tax haven, (which is why most pension funds are held offshore), profits can be added to capital without the erosion of tax which gives compounded returns – so are at an advantage to portfolios held and managed in a high tax jurisdiction (assuming anti-avoidance provisions do not bite back home).
If you would to find out more about our Podcast Professionals or would like to join our project to create the definitive podcast library of information for the UHNW community contact deborah@garnhamfos.com or call 020 3740 7423.