In 2024, headlines screamed of a millionaire “exodus” from the UK and other countries—10,900+ news pieces carried the story. The supposed flight of the rich was even credited with pressuring the UK Labour government to soften tax reform plans.
But here’s the catch: the narrative rests almost entirely on a single report from Henley & Partners, a firm that sells residence-by-investment schemes.
A review by the Tax Justice Network, with Patriotic Millionaires UK and Tax Justice UK, shows the numbers don’t stack up:
- The 9,500 millionaires said to have left the UK in 2024? That’s just 0.3% of Britain’s 3.06 million millionaires.
- Across 2013–2024, migration rates stayed consistently close to 0% per year.
- Academic studies agree: wealthy individuals respond to taxes with minimal migration.
So, was there really a millionaire flight? Or just a media storm amplifying a consultancy’s marketing report at the exact moment when calls for wealth taxes on the super-rich were gaining momentum?
#WealthTax #MillionaireExodus #TaxJustice #Narratives
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