A BILLIONAIRE hedge fund boss who paid £330million in tax last year is quitting Britain, dealing a fresh blow to Labour’s growth plans and the Treasury’s coffers.
Chris Rokos, 55, is said to be moving to Greece and opening an Athens office for his investment firm, Rokos Capital Management.
Experts have now warned the loss to the Treasury will be huge.
To put £330million into perspective, that sum could cover the starting salaries of more than 9,400 NHS nurses for a year, or fund 8,200 teachers.
It would also be enough to build 11 brand new secondary schools, or pay for the training and kit of 7,500 new police officers.
For ordinary households, the maths is stark.
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The average family pays around £24,738 a year in tax, meaning Rokos’s bill alone was worth the contribution of roughly 13,340 households.
Rokos paid £330million in tax last year, according to the Sunday Times Tax List, which ranked him as the third-highest taxpayer in Britain.
In March, he also pledged to donate £190million to Cambridge University.
The reasons behind Rokos move haven’t been made public, but the news -first reported by Bloomberg – comes amid growing concern that wealthy individuals are leaving the UK due to changes in tax rules.
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Greece is seen as an attractive alternative for high earners.
Under its tax scheme, qualifying foreign residents can pay a flat annual tax of just €100,000 (around £86,000) on all their income earned outside Greece, regardless of how much they earn.
His exit follow those of checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz and Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, who also left Britain after changes to non-dom tax rules.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said:
“Britain cannot afford to keep driving away successful people who contribute the most to the Exchequer.
“Losing a taxpayer who handed over £330million last year should set alarm bells ringing in the Treasury.
“Ministers must stop treating the wealthy as an endless cash cow or ordinary taxpayers will ultimately be left picking up the tab.”
Dan Neidle, founder of the think tank Tax Policy Associates, told the BBC‘s Today programme that the £330million in lost tax revenue was “quite a lot of money“.
“He will probably pay almost nothing in Greece, and we can’t compete with that,” Neidle added.
Neidle said the government needed to “give certainty” to ultra-wealthy people living in Britain, arguing that repeated changes to the non-dom regime and speculation over a possible wealth tax were not helping.
“Stop rumours, stop tinkering,” he said.
Rokos’s move comes before the Chancellor John Healey‘s first Budget on October 28.
The Chancellor has refused to rule out tax rises but pledged to control spending and balance the books.
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A government spokesperson said: “The UK remains an attractive destination for talent and investment”.
“The chancellor has made wealth creation one of his top priorities,” the spokesperson said, adding that the UK has “a competitive and stable tax system, deep capital markets, world-class universities and a highly skilled workforce”.