BYE BYE BLIGHTY…
By David Vance On April 16th, 2012Britain in 2012. No place for the British?
More than half a million wealthy Britons are expected to move abroad in the next two years amid concerns about crumbling road and rail networks, crime and high taxes, a survey reveals today. Some 19 per cent of people with savings and investments worth more than £250,000 are considering a new life overseas, which is up from 17 per cent six months ago and 14 per cent a year ago. The figures suggest that at least 500,000 people with that level of personal wealth may leave the UK in the next two years.
Here’s a question. If you are/were in the bracket, where would you go? I’ll be honest and say that I think about it but the only place I quite favour is the south of France. But with Presidential candidate Monsieur Hollande threatening 75% tax levels, that seems a bit dodgy!
The UK still has plenty going for it, however, but politicians are ruining it and have ruined it. There seems to be a real desire to punish success and reward indolence. There seems to be a desire to be the needs of immigrants ahead of native Brits. If you punish successful people, you will get failure.
I do have a liking for Switzerland, a clean, tidy and demcratic country but also I like the ‘can do’ attitude prevalent in the USA. I wish that we had it here.
Both good choice and I entirely agree with that analysis .
I have that resource and more, my one regret is that I didn’t decide to take the ‘ten pound pom’ trip. I could have just snuck in on the scheme’s final year.
Too late now.
I’d probably end up in the ratty little district of Zizkov, in lovely Prague. Just outside the disneyland-like city centre, bars open 24/7, easy access to fine weed and never a bit of trouble on those graffitied steets.
Shit, I wouldn’t even need to be in that bracket to settle there. I’m working on my Czech
“More than half a million wealthy Britons are expected to move abroad in the next two years amid concerns about crumbling road and rail networks, crime and high taxes, a survey reveals today.”
Can’t blame them really. If it came to pass, expect the puppets in our two-bob government to hike taxes even further.
Good luck to them. There are few more noble and necessary things than shielding what is ours from the savage, rapacious State. I might join them if I can find one piece of land on the planet which isn’t occupied by the Total State.
Switzerland used to be a prime candidate but it’s now bent beneath the American bankster and IRS yoke. Canada might do, though the State is surrounding them too. Wherever it is anyone gos to, there’s no point in considering the US or any EU nation.
Maybe Iceland might do. It’s beyond (for now) the EU beast, the chicks are hot, the natives have asserted their sovereignty over their government, it’s a beautiful, dramatic place. The fly in the ointment is the monstrous price of booze. If they can sort those unholy taxes it might be at the top of the list.
Sarah, on April 16th, 2012 at 2:35 pm Said:
I’d probably end up in the ratty little district of Zizkov, in lovely Prague. Just outside the disneyland-like city centre, bars open 24/7, easy access to fine weed and never a bit of trouble on those graffitied steets.
Shit, I wouldn’t even need to be in that bracket to settle there. I’m working on my Czech
You had just better hope that Czech manages to fight those off at Brussels, and keep the Czech Crown ..( Long live Vaclav Klaus ) here in Slovakia, we unfortunately were forced to accept the Euro, and the cost of just about everything is .. horrific.
Pete
Don’t obsess on the US.
The Swiss also have tax agreements with the UK and the EU. For better or worse, the days of the ” secret offshore bank account ” are coming to an end, and all the big European and other countries have brought this to pass. It’s not a US dominated effort at all.
Hi from Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia.
Phantom -
“For better or worse, the days of the ” secret offshore bank account ” are coming to an end”
Or as normal people know it, “privacy”.
Yes Harri, I am aware of that, and it has been worrying me. Virtually all of the czech people and expats I know there are very euro-sceptic, and as far as I’m aware, the consensus is that Czechs ought to be given a choice on the matter in a referendum. And it seems most would reject it.
We can only hope their will is respected … which, unfortunately, is not guarunteed.
We can only hope their will is respected … which, unfortunately, is not guarunteed.
Sarah, It will start in the Balkansm and end in the Balkans .. it always does.
Try Brno, A mini Praha, but at half the cost? We have a holiday home there, I would take Brno and the Czech Koruna, over Bratislava, the Euro and the horrific cost, and slave trade salaries, any time?
Czech, Slovak, same thing .. it’s difficult is it not.
I moved out of my place of birth England, a long long time ago, when the last Labour government, made it absolutely crystal clear, that I and my family, being tax-payers and have never had to rely on the ‘State’ for anything, were not wanted, or required .. that, and I was [then] and I know it’s far far worse now, was at the bottom of that ladder, and there was no way up. so offski we all went, skills, assets, family, lock, stock and proverbial barrel.
As for the Euro here .. there are grumblings and people are not happy, it will end in floods of tears.
In fact, in some Kaufland stores ( where the bread is the cheapest) locals are having to queue up again for that loaf, only know they are paying ten times more for it ;-(
It’s a shame and very sad I think when one feels compelled to leave their home like a sinking ship, but all too understandable. Increasingly so.
I spent a week in Brno about 5 years ago, training for work. And another weekend soon after I left that job, just partying with mates. Was a lovely spot, would love to go back. Definately another contender. We’ll see.
As David states in the last thread ..
“BLESSED ARE THE IMMIGRANTS…” yep, pretty much so.
I wouldn’t want to move to the US. I’m reading elsewhere that a Bill has passed The Senate which will allow the authorities to confiscate the passports of anybody owing $50,000 in back taxes. Now, some here may say “so what”, but it is unlikely to apply to Warren Buffet:
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/buffett-irs-back-taxes/2011/09/01/id/409520
- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett triggered a major debate over taxes recently when he wrote in The New York Times that he should be paying more to the federal government. He called on Washington lawmakers to up tax rates on the rich.
But it turns out that Buffett’s own company, Berkshire Hathaway, has had every opportunity to pay more taxes over the last decade. Instead, it’s been mired in a protracted legal battle with the Internal Revenue Service over a bill that one analyst estimates may total $1 billion.
Yes, that’s right: while Warren Buffett complains that the rich aren’t paying their fair share his own company has been fighting tooth and nail to avoid paying a larger share. -