Lakshmi Mittal is believed to have left UK over higher taxes, a report claimed.
Indian-origin steel industry tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has left the UK and now lives in Switzerland, the Sunday Times reported, blaming the inheritance tax of the Labor government for a mass exodus of the richest. Chancellor Rachel Reeves who is expected to impose another tax rise in her upcoming budget, axed the non-dom status in April. The system allowed wealthy people living in the UK to pay tax only on income made in the country — not from offshore earnings. The report quoted one of Mittal’s advisers who said many wealthy people living in the UK are in a fix as to why they should pay tax to the UK government for their assets elsewhere in the world. “The issue was inheritance tax. Many wealthy people from overseas cannot understand why all of their assets, wherever they are in the world, should be subject to inheritance tax imposed by the UK Treasury. People in this situation feel they have little choice but to leave and are either sad or angry to be doing so,” the adviser said.
Switzerland and Dubai
The report said Mittal now lives in Switzerland and will spend his future in Dubai. “He already has a mansion in the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, with more than 3.5 million people, and has now bought up tracts of an intriguing development on the nearby Naïa Island,” the report said. There is no inheritance tax in Dubai and offspring are usually not taxed for their inheritance in Switzerland. Mittal started exploring his options to move overseas earlier this year and the reports first emerged in March when the super-rich community was hopeful that the chancellor would not pursue her plans to change the non-dom rules. “Mittal, the founder of ArcelorMittal group who was ranked eighth in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with £15.444 billion, is the most affluent person to have quit the UK as part of the current exodus,” the report said, including Norwegian shipping billionaire John Fredriksen and German investor Christian Angermayer in the list. Fredriksen moved to Dubai and Angermayer moved to Switzerland.
