Comments
They might threaten to head for Monaco, the Bahamas, or even Dubai if the missiles stop flying overhead. But in the end they will always stay. Steve Rotheram, the Mayor of Liverpool and a key ally of the Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham, this week dismissed the threat of people fleeing from wealth taxes. He also dropped heavy hints that some kind of extra levy is planned by the new administration.
This is the kind of delusional blue-sky thinking you’d expect from a new administration on the cusp of power. But there is just one snag: there is plenty of evidence from around the world that wealth taxes drive out the rich, and more significantly, investment. Team Andy are likely to have a big shock if they try it.
We have already seen plenty of the mega-rich leaving after the non-dom loophole was closed
From his perch in Liverpool, Rotherham has turned into a cheerleader for a wealth tax. While Burnham himself has only said that people ‘will have to pay a little bit more’, and key members of his team such as Louise Haigh have argued for increases in Capital Gains Tax to tap the rich, he is arguing for a full-scale wealth tax. ‘We get this all the time,’ he argued, dismissing claims that the better off might leave the country. For all the huffing and puffing, Rotherham thinks it will be the same this time around.
