Tech multi-millionaire worth £700m set to quit UK for Dubai ahead of Budget
A tech entrepreneur worth £700m has revealed his plans to leave the UK for Dubai ahead of Rachel Reeves’ planned tax rises.
Listen to this article
Herman Narula, the boss of £2.5bn tech firm Improbable, told the Telegraph he is preparing to emigrate to the UAE ahead of a so-called ‘settling up’ charge on entrepreneurs.
He said: “I don’t particularly want to leave the UK – but I might want to one day and I don’t want to be banned from that option.”
He objects to a planned tax intended to stop the wealthy from avoiding paying taxes by shifting their wealth to a low-tax jurisdiction.
Read more: 91 prisoners released in error over past seven months, new figures show
Ms Reeves is planning a tax on capital gains when a wealthy individual leaves the UK and moves elsewhere.
He said the government was ‘anti-entrepreneur’ and that it was ‘too unstable and too risky to maintain residency.’
His firm, Improbable, develops products in gaming, defence, AI and cryptocurrencies.
Last month it emerged Nikolay Storonsky, the multibillionaire founder of Revolut, had chosen to shift his main residence from the UK to the UAE.
Earlier this year, the UK’s ninth richest man, Norwegian born shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, who is worth an estimated £14bn, turned his back on the UK, saying “Britain has gone to hell.”
He moved his business out of London and is now said to spend most of his time running it from the United Arab Emirates.
Asked by Norwegian title E24 in June about his feelings for the UK, Fredriksen said: “It’s starting to remind me more and more of Norway. Britain has gone to hell, like Norway.”