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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Chris McCall

Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne calls for controversial 'non-dom' tax status to be scrapped

Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne has urged Jeremy Hunt to finally scrap the controversial non-dom tax status when the Chancellor delivers his autumn budget this week.

The Scots entrepreneur and philanthropist told the Record it would be "no loss" if some wealthy individuals chose to leave the UK as a result.

Bannatyne, who was a Dragon on the hit BBC start-up show for 10 years, believes the UK Government could raise billions of pounds in revenue if non-doms were made to pay tax on their overseas earnings.

Non-dom - short for non-domiciled individual - is a term used for a UK resident whose permanent home is registered as outside the country. A non-dom only pays UK tax on money earned in Britain - but does not have to pay any tax to the UK on money made elsewhere in the world.

The SNP has described the tax status as an "immoral outrage" while Labour has pledged to scrap it.

The controversial status allows billionaires the chance to make significant savings if they choose a lower-tax country for their domicile.

Bannatyne, who was raised in Clydebank, said: "There are 72,000 registered non-doms in the UK. If they each save £500,000 in taxes each year that is £35 billion that could go into UK tax take."

Asked if he was concerned if some wealthy individuals may simply choose to live elsewhere, he said: "Let them. It will be no loss to UK."

Labour has pledged to abolish non-dom status in the wake of a row over Rishi Sunak benefiting from his wife's millions while raising taxes on working people.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it "simply isn't right" for wealthy people to benefit from "outdated non-dom tax perks" while ordinary Brits struggle.

Sunak was embroiled in a major dispute earlier this year over his wife Akshata Murty's tax affairs when it emerged she was non-domiciled in the UK, saving her from potentially paying millions of pounds in tax.

Murty holds a 0.91 per cent stake in Indian tech giant Infosys - founded by her father - worth an estimated £11.6 million per year. Amid a furious backlash, Murty U-turned and said she would pay tax on her overseas income.

SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson said: "The non-dom status is an immoral outrage - a tax dodging con sanctioned by Westminster. It shows just how out of touch this Tory UK government is that people can dodge hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax during a crippling cost of living crisis.

"The UK government needs to wake up and scrap this shambolic waste of resources, which would put billions each year back into the UK Treasury coffers."

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