The departure of the Livingstones shows how unease at tax changes is now impacting home-grown talent after changes to taxation ranging from private equity investments to inheritances and capital gains. They join ultra-rich foreigners including Egypt’s Nassef Sawiris and Belgium’s Frederic de Mevius in curbing ties to the UK as they grapple with a raft of changes, including the ending of a preferential tax regime for non-domiciled residents.
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The impact is also starting to be felt in the upper reaches of the City of London with the exit of Gnodde, a South African who is well-known across the industry. The banker, 65, is moving to avoid the impact of changes to the non-dom regime and foreign-held trusts, according to City AM, which first reported the news.
The scrapping of the preferential tax regime for non-domiciled residents earlier this month is the measure most often unsettling well-heeled UK residents. Under that system, which dated back to 1799, so-called non-doms could avoid UK taxes on their overseas earnings for as long as 15 years.
By contrast, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that imposing a higher tax rate on millionaires would probably send the US richest towards the exits. Republicans in the White House, Senate and House had been looking at a potential new 40% rate for taxpayers earning $1 million or more a year.
For the Livingstones, the move to Monaco further boosts their ties to the French Riviera city-state where they have held major investments for more than a decade.
The switch for the founders of London & Regional took effect between late March and early April, the filings show. That was about the time that Keir Starmer’s Labour government brought in the broad-ranging tax changes that it had announced at the UK’s Autumn Budget in October.
A representative for Ian, 62, and Richard, 60, declined to comment. The siblings have a combined fortune of about $8.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. A Goldman Sachs spokesperson confirmed Gnodde’s change of role would increase his focus on the continent.
Long a bastion of legal and political stability, the UK has traditionally punched above its weight as a global wealth hub — but its reputation has taken a hit following Brexit and the flux of prime ministers since 2016.
It’s also repeatedly curbed incentives for wealthy individuals who live in the country, including scrapping inheritance tax breaks for overseas trusts as part of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s efforts to plug what she described as a £40 billion ($53 billion) economic hole.
Monaco is often a favorite destination for those looking to exit the UK, where the top 1% typically contribute more than a quarter of total income taxes.
Smaller than New York’s Central Park, Monaco doesn’t impose taxes on capital gains or income and has generous exemptions for inherited assets. It also offers high levels of safety compared with other European territories.
Other UK billionaires who have relocated to the Mediterranean principality include Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of chemicals giant Ineos, who moved there around 2018 partly due to the threat of the Labour’s then-left wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Italy, meantime, is increasingly becoming one of the UK’s biggest rivals as a global wealth hub after making dedicated efforts to court the world’s rich over the past decade.
It introduced a regime in 2017 allowing tax breaks on wealthy foreigners’ overseas earnings for as long as 15 years in exchange for an annual fee of €100,000, taking inspiration from the UK’s non-dom program. Those changes are making it more and more attractive to the global elite, even after the country doubled its annual cost last year.
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The sons of a dentist, the Livingstone brothers grew up in London and began building their real estate empire in the 1990s, acquiring distressed UK assets after a slump in prices. Ian, who studied optometry in college, also set up an eyewear company, which eventually expanded to more than 200 stores. He sold his stake to Leonardo Del Vecchio’s Luxottica Group in 2010.
London & Regional’s real estate portfolio now includes London cinemas, Madrid offices and the Fairmont Monte Carlo, a four-star Monaco hotel that the Livingstones’ firm bought in 2007.
Outside real estate, the brothers made a lucrative investment in Evolution AB, one of the world’s biggest online casino platforms. Their charitable foundations have also supported programs for UK children, British fashion and London colleges through their charities.
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