I am friends with a billionaire property developer who left Britain for good this year. He went to live in a European tax haven because he objects to this country’s 40 percent inheritance tax—one of the most punitive rates in the world. He was born and had lived in London all his life, but his business interests are now global; he no longer recognizes this city, and feels the current Labour government is hostile towards wealth creators. The nation will miss him and his ilk: He reckoned he was frequently one of the top 10 taxpayers in Britain. Overall, the top one percent of earners generate 29 percent of all income tax receipts.
For centuries, Britain and especially London have been a magnet for talent and capital from across the world. Historically the center of the British Empire, and latterly the only financial hub to rival New York, London was a truly global city—full of high earners, a cultural mecca, brilliantly connected to other centers of finance and industry.
h/t kiki9
