The Reform UK leader is trying to claim the policy will help low-paid workers, but in reality it will benefit billionaires
A new tax policy that Nigel Farage is set to unveil has been slammed as a ‘giveaway’ for foreign billionaires.
At a press conference this morning, the Reform UK leader will announce that if elected, his party would reintroduce non-dom tax status and allow the super-rich to avoid paying tax in the UK for a one-off fee of £250,000 every ten years.
In an article for the Telegraph, Farage said that millionaires and billionaires who pay the fee for the “Britannia card” would gain access to “a stable, indefinite remittance-style regime on offshore income and a 20-year inheritance-tax shield”.
The non-dom tax status, which exempted wealthy people from paying UK tax on their foreign income and gains, was scrapped by Labour in April.
Farage has attempted to frame the policy as a ‘Robin Hood’ style initiative, which would raise enough to give around 2.5 million of the lowest-paid workers – those earning less than £23,000 per year – an “annual cash payment” of £600.
Reform has estimated that around 6,000 wealthy individuals would buy the card, which would generate £1.6 billion a year.
However, Tax Policy Associates, an independent think tank, has estimated that the policy would cost £34 billion over five years and would have to be funded by a combination of spending cuts and tax rises.
In addition, by losing the tax that this small number of wealthy people would otherwise have paid, they say Reform is providing “a much more generous regime for the very wealthy than was in place before March 2024”.
Before 2024, wealthy people who wanted to avoid paying tax on foreign gains could only do so if they paid £60,000 a year.
Responding to Farage’s policy, a Labour spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage can brand this whatever he wants – the reality is his first proper policy is a golden ticket for foreign billionaires to avoid the tax they owe in this country.
“As ever with Reform, the devil is in the detail. This giveaway would reduce revenues raised from the rich that would have to be made up elsewhere – through tax hikes on working families or through Farage’s promise to charge them to use the NHS.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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