Expats flee the City

Sep 09 The days when Great Britain was an attractive nation for finance professionals have perhaps departed; no longer is the City of London a draw for high earning bankers, and no longer is the UK a good place for families from abroad to bring up their children and earn a decent salary.

The high taxes and charges levied against so-called non-doms are sending foreign workers home or elsewhere offshore, as they repeatedly point out that there is nothing attractive to them about living and working in Britain anymore.

In a recent report from Bloomberg, the plight of thousands of American expatriate families in the UK is brought to light. It seems they are either returning to the States or moving to live and work and contribute elsewhere, particularly amongst the offshore finance jurisdictions

The number of US citizens in Britain fell almost 4% to just 126,000 in the 12 months to this month according to the Office for National Statistics. The Americans’ situation is a reflection of that across all international communities in the UK where there are well educated, top performing professionals and executives employed in senior financial roles in accounting, banking, insurance and fund sectors

These people are finding that all of a sudden Great Britain is a more difficult country to live in; where high taxes levied against foreign workers makes it abundantly clear that the UK no longer wants overseas workers.

What’s more, in industries such as banking and finance, jobs have been lost; with the Confederation of British Industry estimating that the UK’s financial industry will have lost about 45,000 jobs in the first nine months of 2009.

Now, we’re not talking about a class of immigrants who have arrived in the UK seeking work or even support from the state who are fleeing these shores, we’re talking about the top end of professional society who have been head-hunted and invited to Britain who are being forced to pay a fee to live in the UK and retain their non-domicile status and who will now be subject to a 50% tax charge if they earn over £150,000 a year.

One case highlighted by Bloomberg shows an American who is leaving the UK has seen his commissions fall away and excessive taxation erode the rest of his salary so that he is now earning 75% less than he was when he moved to Britain!