Who's considered emmigrating because of tax?

lincroft1710

Pennywise wrote: »

You can't legislate against this either - you can't stop them moving abroad and can't force them to pay UK tax if they're resident elsewhere.

Both these are theoretically possible. Certain countries have in the past made it very difficult for their citizens to leave their own country. It would not be impossible to threaten a national who worked abroad with loss of citizenship if they refused to pay UK taxes while working abroad.

However neither of these are practical (nor in my opinion fair), so it would probably never happen. But practicality and legislation do not always walk the same path

pineapple

I don't look at tax specifically but at the end result - quality of life. And for me quality of life is to do with space, climate, lifestyle and being able to afford a reasonable house without having every bit of spare income eaten up by bills.
For me, Australia ticks all the boxes. Discounting the spiders that is! I would emigrate in a heartbeat but I wouldn't make the point system. Shame this country isn't so choosy.

Randvegeta

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Yes, tax rates are ridiculous. They are far too LOW to raise sufficient revenue to support the infrastructure and services that a modern economy requires.

No... they are far too high. I use Hong Kong in this example as it ticks all the boxes a government should offer.

-Healthcare
-Police
-Fire department
-Some well fare.
-Education
-More!

And it does so while offering a top rate tax of 15%! It also operates with a budget surplus, with life expectancy, standard of living and disposable income all higher than the UK.

So I'm sorry, but you are flat our WRONG. This country has got into the state it is in by disincetivising workers, creating a well fare state, waist and bureaucracy!

Low tax nations can and do exists. And they function well. So I disagree. The taxes here are FAR too high and the whole point of this thread is to see if skilled people can leave, will leave. And if they do, how will the Gov address that? Raise taxes?

chrismac1

Personally I favour a move away from income tax - where you are often hitting people who contribute a lot - to a mansion tax, ideally starting with Buckingham Palace! Abramovic and co. don't pay a lot of UK taxes, likewise many footballers. So tax the £5m house, no clever tax accountant can produce smoke and mirrors to get rid of that!

Like it or not, we can't afford to lose the big contributors - or who is going to pay the taxes for all the folks on benefits and gold-plated public sector pensions? So it's a fine line we're treading right now. I have a couple of clients who are actively looking abroad, if they go that's another £50k of tax revenues down the Swanney, plus another 20 or so people looking for a new job.

gadgetmind

Randvegeta wrote: »

creating a well fare state, waist and

Living off the fat of the land?

lr1277

Pennywise wrote: »

This is the kind of thing that people don't realise. We're now in a global economy and its easier to move abroad than ever before and that's what people are doing - especially the higher earners, and those jobs are lost to the UK, they aren't being filled by UK workers. You can't legislate against this either - you can't stop them moving abroad and can't force them to pay UK tax if they're resident elsewhere.

Doesn't the US tax its citizens living in another country? So the US citizens were double taxed (by the country they reside in and by the US).
I am sure this led to US citizens renouncing their US citizenships and taking on the citizenship of the country they are resident in.
I am sure US citizens in Hong Kong did this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/26expat.html

So it is possible to not be resident in the UK and still be taxed by the UK government. (On the basis the UK government changes legislation).

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

Randvegeta wrote: »

-More!

Well consider me sold! I thought the first 5 were good things for government to provide, but they give their citizens more? Where can I get some of this 'more'? I'd sure hate to waist my life on well fare if there's 'more' available from the government.

Randvegeta

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush wrote: »

Well consider me sold! I thought the first 5 were good things for government to provide, but they give their citizens more? Where can I get some of this 'more'? I'd sure hate to waist my life on well fare if there's 'more' available from the government.

As I said in my post, you can get 'more' in Hong Kong. Glad to hear you're 'sold'. 'More' is always better than less.. unless we are talking about taxes. Less tax is better than more tax :-).

I'm not going to go through everything the HK Gov do, but if you would like a short list of 'more', here are some example.

- Early this year, all working residents in HK received a tax rebate of HK$6,000, simply because the Gov had TOO MUCH money.

- The government encourage new businesses and actually provide grants and other benefits in certain industries, such as technology (R&D).

- Legal aid is offered to those requiring a lawyer but without the means to pay for it.

- And again, MORE!

Let's look at the UK shall we? High tax, high debt, declining quality of public service, ever increasing cost of living, declining GDP... and yes.. MORE (but the bad kind).

bendix

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush wrote: »

Well consider me sold! I thought the first 5 were good things for government to provide, but they give their citizens more? Where can I get some of this 'more'? I'd sure hate to waist my life on well fare if there's 'more' available from the government.

The first five things are good things for government to provide. And the HK Government provides them more than adequately.

You want more? How about the fact that the HK Government runs its finances so well that it has decided to return HK$6000 (£500) to every single permanent resident this because it has built up a surplus?

Will that do for you?

bendix

Randvegeta wrote: »

- Early this year, all working residents in HK received a tax rebate of HK$6,000, simply because the Gov had TOO MUCH money.

).

Not just working residents. All permanent residents, including non-working pensioners and even HK permanent residents who live overseas.