HMRC's letters asking wealthy Britons what they own spark debate over a possible exit tax

What happened? HM Revenue & Customs has sent letters to wealthy taxpayers asking them to meet and discuss their "sources of wealth", trusts, companies and family office arrangements, The Sunday Times reported on 24 October. The letters come from HMRC's Wealthy Team, whose remit covers people with incomes of £200,000 or more or assets of £2 million or more in any of the last three years, about 850,000 people. HMRC says the number of letters issued so far is in the low hundreds. The letters are voluntary but note: "We may still need to carry out compliance checks on your tax returns. However, speaking with you first may help avoid this."

The case for HMRC says it wants "to help all customers get their tax right, including the UK's wealthiest people". Parliament's Public Accounts Committee criticised the tax authority last year because it could not say how much tax UK billionaires pay, and recommended treating the very wealthy as a separate group. Former HMRC chief Edward Troup has argued that full disclosure "should be the social contract with the billionaire community".

The case against Advisers note that the requests go beyond income and tax paid to what people own. Some suspect groundwork for an exit tax on people leaving the UK: "Building that knowledge could indeed be part of moving towards an exit tax," Robert Record of Partners Wealth Management told the paper. When HMRC sent similar letters to billionaires in September, Withers partner Christopher Groves said most clients were replying "thank you, but no thank you". The debate lands as wealthy residents leave: billionaires worth a combined £121 billion have left the UK since 2024, according to an analysis of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Sources: The Sunday Times, LBC, The National