The number of non-dom taxpayers in the UK in the final year before the status was scrapped dropped by 1,200, statistics show.
The 1 per cent fall from 83,100 to 81,900, which includes those "deemed domicile" – former non-doms who have since become British tax residents – came amid predictions that thousands of wealthy people would choose to leave the country before the tax change brought in by the government of former prime minister Keir Starmer.
About 9,000 left in the 2024-2025 tax year compared with 11,200 the year before, while the newly arrived non-doms also dropped from 10,000 to about 8,600, tax authority HMRC said.
Ranging from billionaire business owners to City of London employees, the group contributed £9.7 billion ($13 billion) – an increase of 9 per cent – in capital gains, employment and income taxes during the period, the biggest total in records from the tax authority dating back to 2008, the data shows.
How many non-doms have actually left since the changes took effect remains an open question and the government has said it will only be able to publish accurate estimates next year. The UK is hoping that curbing tax breaks on non-doms’ overseas wealth will generate about £33 billion in extra taxes in the coming years. But several think tanks have contested those figures, warning of the threat to jobs and growth.
Non-dom status had existed in the UK since 1799, when it was introduced to protect colonial investments. It allowed people living abroad to pay British taxes only on what they earned in the UK.
Under the system, claimants could initially hold the status without any extra charges, but eventually faced annual costs of as much as £60,000 if they continued to reside in Britain. The system was tightened by Rishi Sunak’s government to make the status more difficult to obtain, before it was then replaced by Rachel Reeves, UK chancellor at the time, with a residence-based regime.
Billionaires, including Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz and Egypt’s second-richest man Nassef Sawiris, left the UK following the changes, which brings wealth held abroad into the UK inheritance tax system. Those arriving in the UK are now exempt from tax on foreign income and gains for the first four years of their tax residence in the country, before they are taxed the same way as ordinary UK residents.
The British government describes its four-year replacement system as more competitive, but European nations such as Italy and Greece have brought in their own programmes to help attract rich foreign citizens in the past decade that offer longer time frames similar to Britain’s non-dom regime.
Who's leaving?
About 16,500 millionaires were predicted to leave the UK in 2025, according to Henley & Partners’ Global Wealth Migration Report last year.
Becky Fatemi, executive partner at Sotheby’s International Realty UK, told The National that the true impact of scrapping the non-dom scheme would take several years to unfold. “The ramifications have yet been understood,” she said, adding that she was aware of many wealthy people leaving the UK, particularly due to the issue of inheritance tax.
Their departures had not yet affected the UK economy, Ms Fatemi said. But she warned of a domino effect in which a billionaire who leaves also removes the tax take of potentially thousands of people, from their staff to the taxi drivers they may use.
Leslie MacLeod-Miller, chief executive of pressure group Foreign Investors for Britain, told The Telegraph that government inaction could push more investors and entrepreneurs to leave. “Britain is losing internationally mobile wealth at an accelerating pace,” he said. “The exodus of wealth will only get worse if the government does not introduce a competitive tax regime to restore Britain’s place in the world.”
Campaign group Cut My Tax said the wealthiest and highest tax-paying people were the ones who have left the UK. “The economy is suffering significantly as a consequence," the group said in a statement on social media. "This totally counter-productive policy was pursued not only by Labour but also by the Conservatives. The Conservatives haven't as yet changed their policy on this issue. When will they do so? And will they admit their fault?”
Billionaire home sales thrive
In the 12 months since the tax changes were made in April 2025, property transactions in prime areas of central London dropped more than 32 per cent, and prices fell 7 per cent, data compiled by residential research firm LonRes shows.
But while the end of the non-dom ushered in a series of departures from the UK capital, it did not stop the wealthiest from buying London property. Over the past 12 months across the city's prime postcodes, activity is down in all price points compared with each of the previous five years, apart from the £30 million and above band, LonRes data shows.
The 34 homes sold for more than £15 million in the first half represented a combined £1.24 billion of transactions, a more than 78 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier, analysis by broker Beauchamp Estates found this week.
The typically small number of so-called super prime transactions in London means the data can be heavily skewed by a handful of deals. Still, this year has started with a steady stream of notable purchases.
The record sale of Nick Candy’s Chelsea mansion Providence House for £270 million to Quadrature Capital founder Suneil Setiya involved sealed bids from interested parties, underscoring the depth of demand for a rare London property boasting both privacy and ample grounds.
The second biggest deal of the period, the £195 million sale of the Holme in Regent’s Park, was also evidence of increased interest at the very top end of the market after its worst year since the pandemic. The 40-room white stucco mansion, which counts the US ambassador among its short list of neighbours, sold at a premium of about 40 per cent to its sale price less than 18 months earlier.
“Extreme wealth is above small domestic rises in taxation,” said Savills' head of prime central London, Richard Gutteridge. “It might make a change where they reside most or least but it isn’t going to stop them buying where they most like or want to be.”
Buyers purchasing a £15 million plus property would typically have a net worth of at least £100 million, said Beauchamp director Rosy Khalastchy. That level of wealth usually comes with a multi-city property portfolio, meaning buyers might only spend a few weeks a year in London.
