‘A memo to Starmer: I want to keep the super-rich in the UK – it's the idle I want to lose’ - Kelvin MacKenzie
PA
Kelvin MacKenzie explains why he disagrees with the decision to scrap the non-dom tax status
It never surprises me how hostile Socialism is towards the super-rich. The Left loves spending their money but dislikes the people who create it.
Any day now, I expect Reeves and co to fulfil their manifesto promise to tighten up Sunak’s disgraceful decision to scrap the non-dom status of the really, really (really) wealthy.
Under non-dom status, a foreigner can live here but only has to pay tax on his or her UK earnings.
They can shield any income and profits from overseas. HMRC can’t get their hands on it. That upsets Labour. Why is beyond me.
We spend too much time worrying and subsidising the super-skint and too little time trying to create and attract the super-rich.
Shockingly, 47 per cent of the country doesn’t pay tax and three million are on long-term sick.
We need those non-doms. Last year, it has just been revealed, there were a record 77,000 in the UK who paid a fantastic £8.9billion in tax.
That’s a lot of teachers and nurses. They buy big houses, they employ a lot of staff, they go to fancy restaurants, they spend their money in flashy shops, they send their kids to expensive schools, they drive expensive cars.
They are everything we want. What is there not to like?
After all, thesuper-rich can live anywhere. Italy for instance charges a flat £100,000 tax for the rich to move there.
Bizarrely, Labour wants to be seen to be even nastier than the Tories, so take my word the wealthy will not be hanging around. And who is going to fill the bucket with that £8.9billion? Certainly not the skint.
I know one of these super wealthy. He’s not a non-dom but is thinking of moving to Dubai because of their tax-friendly attraction.
One of his problems is that he can’t find a buyer for his expensive North London home because the very wealthy have begun moving out of the UK already.
I fear this Labour government, while talking a good game about wanting growth, will actually be massively anti-enterprise.
Let’s take a couple of areas. There is a strong suggestion that Reeves will change inheritance tax so that the exemption for unlisted, family-owned companies is removed.
The relief means a company can be passed down without having to pay tax on its value. If the tax is levied at 40 per cent, most families (these are essentially small businesses and the backbone of the UK) will have to be sold to pay the tax bill.
Oddly, an early victim of the tax will be James Timpson, the new Prisons Minister, who, when his dad dies, will probably have to flog his eponymous key and shoe-making empire.
As Matthew Lynn says in his excellent piece in The Telegraph, huge numbers of private businesses will be destroyed.
The next hammer blow to our companies comes in a shake-up in workers’ rights.
Under the Socialist plan from Day One, an employee won’t have a probation period but will have the same basic rights as longer-standing colleagues in relation to sick pay, holidays, parental leave and unfair dismissal.
The TUC have already branded Amazon, Wetherspoons and a fistful of other businesses as companies they want to get their hands on with the new workers’ rights.
I absolutely guarantee those firms, which are really successful right now, will suffer under politicians who don’t have their best interests at heart.
This is only the beginning of change under Labour. It will be bloody awful. What I do guarantee is that at the end of their time, they will be thrown out.
The economy will fail, the boats over the Channel will increase and the Left will flex their muscles.
See you at Terminal 5 on Friday.