In November, we reported on the number of millionaires leaving Britain after it ended special rules that exempted some of the worldwide income of wealthy non-permanent residents. The Adam Smith Institute now estimates that the 10,800 millionaires who left last year would have paid just under half a million dollars a year in income tax. That’s $5 billion lost income tax each and every year.

Britain taxes everything at a very high rate:

• • • Top Individual Income Tax: 45%
    • Estate Tax: 40%
    • Value Added Tax: 20%
    • Corporate tax: 25%
    • Capital Gains Tax: 24%

Only China has lost more millionaires than Britain.

Britain is relearning a painful lesson it was taught in the 1970s before Margaret Thatcher’s election: capital and wealth flow to where they are treated well. Britain’s new taxes on the rich have only meant fewer rich people to tax. Duh!!