Any fool could have deduced that trying to ensnare the worldwide wealth of rich non-dom individuals, is akin to catching beads of mercury on a glass surface.

Whilst a Winnebago will get you around, nothing is more mobile than a wealthy person being harangued by a daft piece of fiscal legislation, which is relatively easy for them to avoid, by leaving the country.

One reads that non-doms will ‘take the hit’ and remain in the UK, paying all their taxes here, including their worldwide wealth, and the government will receive £6 billion for the privilege. Hello! Instead, as reported last weekend, the Treasury has lost £400 million in revenue.

Wakey, wakey

Wakey, wakey, Rachel, say goodbye to Noddy and Toyland and come and meet us on planet Earth.

The Chancellor is so naïve that in the recent Spending Review she has already allocated the receipts for this taxing idiocy, before she has received a penny.

Statistics show that non-doms are fleeing the country in droves and probably total 10,000 in number to date. This is less a trickle and more a torrent.

Out the door

Going out of the door, is the wealth of the Nation, particularly when this includes stalwart anglophiles and titans of their own respective industries, such as Lakshmi Mittal and John Fredriksen.

These individuals and their families paid fortunes in Stamp Duty and lavished this country with their riches, whilst here, in the form of employment and conspicuous consumption.

They have also invested copious amounts of money in a variety of businesses, employing many British people which benefits all of us.

‘Kicking the rich’

If she could have got over her political obsession trying to grandstand the left wing of her party by ‘kicking the rich’, she could have been bold and courageous, charging the non-doms £250,000 each, per annum, to stay here and be part of our future.

By simple reckoning, excluding all the benefits from VAT, Corporation Tax, PAYE, Stamp Duty – among others – it would equate to some £2.5 billion in direct tax receipts and probably more like £5 billion in total, which would certainly go a long way towards funding the NHS.

Instead, the long-predicted exodus is happening, and Italy, Portugal, Monte Carlo and Dubai are the direct beneficiaries of this foolhardy pursuit.

Fast lane

When European countries create a ‘fast lane’ tax arrangement for non-doms fleeing from the UK, you can assume that they are not idiots and they want their share of this bounty, even if the British government doesn’t.

Goodness knows how long Reeves and The Treasury had to plan and predict the outcome of these tax changes. A child could have worked out what the repercussions would be.

By the look of things, this dynamic duo with the Winter Fuel debacle and by reconsidering amendments to the non-dom Tax fiasco, are going to do more U-turns than a dodgem at the fun fair.

Trevor Abrahmsohn is CEO of Glentree International.

Editor’s note: The £250,000 ‘charge’ mentioned in this column has subsequently been adopted by Reform as a policy, and the Chancellor has recently ‘looked into’ giving former ‘non-doms’ more generous inheritance tax liabilities.