Estimated £1bn ‘cost’ of non-dom status reform challenged

A well-publicised Oxford Economics report that claims the proposed non-doms reform will cost the UK approximately £1bn in tax has been challenged by Tax Policy Associates.

According to the Oxford Economics report 98% of remittance basis users surveyed indicated they would emigrate from the UK sooner if the reforms were implemented leading to a tax loss of £1bn. It also reports that 60% of advisers expect more than 40% of their clients to leave the UK within two years of implementation.

Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates notes that the £1bn estimate and other figures in the report come from a survey of 73 non-doms and 42 tax advisers but he adds that the report ‘says nothing about how the survey was conducted and whether there was any attempt to make it representative ... The results are therefore statistically meaningless’.

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