Tax Haven? The Quest for Financial Utopia Contd.
According to Reuters, the British govt plans, from April 2008, to force anyone who has claimed non-domicile status for seven of the past ten years to either pay $ 59,000 in annual fees, or pay taxes to the UK, for their outside earnings. British residents who’ve registered for “non-domiciled” tax status, or non-doms as they’re commonly called, call Britain their home and so don’t have to pay tax on their earnings outside the country. This policy has made London (in particular) a tax haven, attracting such businessmen as the steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal (India) and Boris Berezovski (Russia). Other developments in the British Exchequer’s pipeline include:
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Tightening regulations for bringing non-doms’ assets into the country, and,
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Making non-doms provide more info on non-doms’ foreign holdings, which includes Swiss banks and tax havens outside the UK like the Cayman Island.
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