Election 2015: I’ll scrap non-dom loophole – Miliband

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has pledged his government would abolish the non-domicile rule which allows wealthy people to limit tax paid on earnings outside the UK.

In a speech he was due to deliver at the University of Warwick today, Mr Miliband said, if elected, his party would scrap what had become a “200-year loophole”.
 
Chancellor George Osborne in his Autumn Statement in December unveiled a new £90,000 charge for people who are non-domiciled in the UK for tax purposes but have lived there for 17 of the past 20 years.

The last Labour government introduced a £30,000 charge for people resident in the UK for seven of the previous 10 years but who were non-domiciled for tax purposes.

Mr Miliband will say “non-doms” had become a symbol of tax avoidance and in reality not much proof is required to show that the beneficiaries are not domiciled in the UK.

“There are people who live here in Britain like you and me, work here in Britain like you and me, are permanently settled here in Britain, like you and me, but aren’t required to pay taxes like you and me because they take advantage of what has become an increasingly arcane 200-year-old loophole,” he will say.

The Labour leader will point out that the tests applied were not very rigorous but he add: “I want to be clear. I don’t blame people for taking advantage of non-dom status.

“I blame governments for fostering a system that can be taken advantage of.”

His stance won support of businessman and Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne, who ironically was one of 100 entrepreneurs who signed a letter to the Telegraph backing the Conservatives’ economic approach.

Bannatyne took to Twitter to say: “This gets my vote I never thought any party would have courage to do this.”