{"id":3576,"date":"2015-04-08T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T15:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3576"},"modified":"2015-04-09T15:38:31","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T14:38:31","slug":"totemic-tax-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3576","title":{"rendered":"‘Totemic’ tax move"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As the general election nears, campaign promises are a dime a dozen. Elections are usually a flurry of predictably vague pledges, with politicians revealing just enough of one policy or another but conveniently omitting the fine print.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis time round, however, is decidedly different. Labour has hit out with bold, clear policies, and their pledge making headlines today (April 8) may just be their boldest.<\/p>\n

 
\nThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve vowed to scrap the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098non-dom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 special tax status, which allows non-domiciled British residents to pay no tax on any income they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re earning abroad.<\/p>\n

 
\nA rule that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been on the books since the 18th century, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a relic of colonial times that today empowers Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mega-rich to skirt their duty to contribute to the society that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s helped them generate and support their wealth.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnon-domiciled\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 may suggest someone who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live in the UK, for the purposes of the tax giveaway, you can be born in Britain, raised in Britain and lived in Britain your entire life and still be non-domiciled. The status is contingent on various loose criteria, including having a father born abroad, a bank account abroad or even something as simple as a foreign news subscription.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe chief executive of HSBC, Stuart Gulliver, is one such example of a typical non-dom \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he was born and raised in the UK, currently lives in the country and sends his children to UK schools, but is able to claim non-dom status because he once worked in Hong Kong. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nThere are about 116,000 people who claim non-dom status, with 5,000 paying an additional charge to continue claiming the status even after having lived in the UK for more than seven years.<\/p>\n

 
\nTax campaigners and experts have described the new Labour policy as a totemic one<\/a>. Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK noted on his blog<\/a> yesterday (April 7):
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe significance of this [policy] cannot be overstated\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it means that a nail has been put in the coffin of the UK tax haven. That is because non-doms could be resident here and pay tax on only a part of their income, which was an advantage simply not available in any other equivalent country around the world. This will now end. The UK will no longer be a tax haven for this reason.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIn fact, the policy was so impressive to one renowned entrepreneur, Duncan Bannatyne, that he has decided to vote Labour precisely because of it<\/a>. Calling it a courageous move on Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part, Bannatyne only last week had signed a letter supporting the Conservatives.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis gets my vote I never thought any party would have courage to do this,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he tweeted yesterday evening.
\nTax expert Jolyon Maugham analysed the policy<\/a>, putting forward an estimate of how much the Treasury would benefit from the proposed Labour change. He figures \u00c2\u01411bn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the most conservative end of the scale, with the upper end of his estimate being \u00c2\u01414bn.<\/p>\n

 
\nCritics of scrapping the special tax exemption say that non-doms will flee the country after being burdened by a new tax bill, taking with them their millions, meaning the country would actually lose money.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut both Maugham and Murphy assert that these claims are wildly overstated.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome non-doms will no doubt leave,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Murphy noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut when I say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098some\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I mean a handful. First that is because there is nowhere else for them to go that is equivalent: London is the place to be and be seen and this rule change will not alter that. Second, despite the threats on previous residence rule changes and on higher tax rates almost no-one ever moves for tax purposes. Quality of life is more important than that, especially if you are already very wealthy. And third, the UK still has favourable taxes compared to most places even if they have to be paid in future. So only a very few will go, and we will not miss them.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner hailed the new Labour policy, saying that it signals the beginning of the end of business as usual for the tax-dodging ultra-rich.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you drive on roads, send your children to schools and use the health service when you fall ill, you pay your fair share of taxes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is one of the founding principles of all functioning democratic societies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut in Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Britain, the wealthy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c those who have benefitted the most from our country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resources \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are expected to contribute the least. The non-dom tax status is a prime example of this idea.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pledge to scrap the status will mean not only potentially billions more in the public purse, but it will also be a step toward restoring what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missing in our tax system and in our society in general under the Tory-led coalition \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fairness.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile the Tories destroy our public institutions, committing to billions more in unnecessary austerity cuts to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, without detailing exactly what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cut, Labour pledges specific policies with measurable aims.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe contrast between the parties couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be greater.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the general election nears, campaign promises are a dime a dozen. Elections are usually a flurry of predictably vague pledges, with politicians revealing just enough of one policy or another but conveniently omitting the fine print.   This time round, however, is decidedly different. Labour has hit out with bold, clear policies, and their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[224,210,237],"wps_subtitle":"Labour vows to end non-dom tax injustice","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3576"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3591,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions\/3591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}