Aston Villa’s non-dom owner leaves UK for Italy
The billionaire co-owner of Aston Villa football club has become the latest wealthy foreigner to leave the UK in response to the government’s decision to abolish the non-dom regime.
According to registry filings, Nassef Sawiris, Egypt’s richest man, is now a resident of Italy. He previously lived in the UK and claimed the country’s generous non-dom status for over a decade.
The chemicals magnate, who owns Aston Villa and is executive chair of OCI Global, has been gradually cutting ties with the UK in recent months.
He resigned as a director of the London branch of his family office, NNS Group, in November last year.
Shortly after, NNS Group was registered in Abu Dhabi, a tax-friendly jurisdiction that is becoming an increasingly attractive bolt-hole for the world’s super-rich.
Now Sawris has formally moved away from the UK, just days before the non-dom regime, a 200-year-old tax status allowing wealthy foreigners only to be taxed on their UK income and assets, is annulled on April 6.
Ultra-high net worth individuals flee the UK
Sawiris’s decision to quit the UK, first reported by the Birmingham Mail, follows several other high-profile departures of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) fleeing what they perceive to be a government assault on wealthy investors.
Last week, it emerged that Lakshmi Mittal, a steel tycoon ranked seventh in the Sunday Times Rich List, had decamped from the UK in favour of the United Arab Emirates.
And in September last year, German crypto investor Christian Angermayer moved to Switzerland before unleashing a fierce broadside at the government’s plans to scrap the non-dom status.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Angermayer said that every non-dom he knew “has left, or [was] about to leave”, and branded the Chancellor’s plans, which had not been formally announced at the time, as a “huge mistake”.
Sawiris is now likely to take up Italy’s attractive flat tax scheme. The regime, which is levied at a blanket rate of €200,000 (£166,600), allows wealthy foreign nationals to reside in the Mediterranean country without paying tax on their global income and assets.
A representative for the Egyptian billionaire declined to comment.
Non-dom reforms
His departure comes despite the Chancellor watering down some of the UK’s non-dom reforms to stem the exodus of UHNWIs from Britain.
At the World Economic Forum at Davos, Rachel Reeves committed to extending the terms of the Temporary Repatriation Facility (TRF). This new tax status allows people moving to the UK to bring capital into the country at a generous rate.
The non-dom community gave the concession short shrift at the time, and a fresh study published on Wednesday has warned that the reforms will create a “punitive and arbitrary” set of rules that will continue to drive out former non-doms.
The Adam Smith Institute paper, titled Wealth Exodus: Stopping non-dom flight, argued that a lack of clarity around the TRF – combined with other changes contained in the Finance Bill – means that wealthy foreigners could face an effective tax rate of 67 per cent on foreign businesses.
Andrew Griffith, shadow business secretary, said the study showed the government was “presiding over the biggest brain drain of talent in a generation”.
“Everyone left in the UK is a victim as we lose the jobs, businesses and spending of the wealth creators,” he added.