Chris Rokos is the founder of the Rokos Capital Management macro hedge fund and a former founding partner of Brevan Howard asset management. He is reported to have ranked third in the latest annual list of British taxpayers, with a tax bill equivalent to €385 million.
“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones,” said John Maynard Keynes. In Greece’s case, the old idea is that it’s a great country for holidays, pleasant for retirement and interesting if looking to purchase a villa – and that’s about it. It is certainly not the first place a wealthy investor would consider for establishing a hedge fund. In fact, it’s a country that is largely hostile to entrepreneurship and success. Now imagine us, as a society, trying to come to terms with very wealthy people moving here without lashing out. Not easy.
The story is well known. British billionaire Chris Rokos reportedly paid around £330 million in taxes in Britain last year. Now he is taking up the recently introduced tax regime in Greece designed to attract individuals who transfer their tax residence to the country, where he will pay €100,000 a year on his foreign income. The difference does make you sit up. Only that Greece never had the option of raking in £330 million from Rokos. Its real choice was between collecting €100,000 and competing for the economic activity that might follow him, or collecting nothing at all and watching him settle in Milan, Geneva or Dubai instead.
