Steel billionaire reportedly latest to leave UK ahead of proposed tax squeeze on ultra-rich

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Move marks the latest high-profile departure amid fears Rachel Reeves’s budget will drive Britain’s wealth overseas

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Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal has reportedly shifted his tax residence to Switzerland after nearly thirty years in the UK, becoming the latest ultra-wealthy individual to head for friendlier fiscal terrain ahead of Rachel Reeves’s budget.

Mr Mittal, who is one of the most prominent figures in Britain’s business landscape and often dubbed by media as the “King of Steel”, amassed his fortune through ArcelorMittal, the Luxembourg-based industrial giant his family controls through a roughly 40 per cent stake.

After taking over his family’s operations in his early twenties, he transformed a modest steel business into a sprawling multinational through an aggressive streak of acquisitions that cemented him as one of the sector’s most influential figures.

ArcelorMittal today employs more than 125,000 people in over 60 countries, including the UK, where it manufactures specialised steel products ranging from chain-link fencing to high-strength wires.

“It wasn’t the tax on income [or capital gains] that was the issue,” an adviser familiar with the Mittals’ move was quoted as saying by The Sunday Times. “The issue was inheritance tax. Many wealthy people from overseas cannot understand why all of their assets, wherever they are in the world, should be subject to inheritance tax imposed by the UK Treasury. People in this situation feel they have little choice but to leave and are either sad or angry to be doing so.”

His decision to reportedly quit Britain comes at a politically sensitive moment for Labour. Ms Reeves is preparing to outline a budget that could include a series of tax rises aimed at plugging fiscal holes and, she says, revitalising a faltering economy.

The 74-year-old billionaire, who is valued at more than £15bn by the Sunday Times Rich List, is expected to spend much of his time in Dubai, where he has a mansion and has now bought up “tracts of an intriguing development on the nearby Naïa Island”, the newspaper claimed.

Ms Reeves’s overhaul of the non-domiciled tax regime – once a key draw for internationally mobile wealth – has already unsettled high earners, and rumours earlier this year that she was exploring a 20 per cent “exit tax” sparked concern over an investor exodus before the idea was shelved, according to The Telegraph.

This follows a string of high-profile moves abroad, which includes Revolut founder Nik Storonsky and Herman Narula, the £2.5bn tech chief executive.

The chancellor is expected to unveil another round of tax increases for high earners on Wednesday as she seeks to plug a £20bn gap in the public finances. Her budget last October already unsettled affluent households, raising capital gains tax and scaling back reliefs available to entrepreneurs when selling their businesses.

She also tightened the rules governing how family-run firms are transferred across generations.

Critics argue that, taken together, these measures amount to an assault on the foundations of wealth generation in Britain. Speculation about what comes next – including talk of a potential 20 per cent levy on those who relocate abroad – has only heightened the tense atmosphere in the days leading up to the budget.

Meanwhile, the steel magnate has been deeply rooted in London since 1995, snapping up some of the capital’s most coveted addresses. His portfolio includes a collection of mansions on the exclusive Kensington Palace Gardens – the fabled “Billionaires’ Row” – among them the 55,000sqft mansion known as the Taj Mittal, purchased in 2004 for £57m. The home, clad in marble from the same quarry as the Taj Mahal, boasts Turkish baths, a ballroom, a jewel-lined swimming pool and room for 20 cars. According to reports, he has no intention of selling the estate.

Earlier this year, he expanded his real-estate footprint further, acquiring a $200m Baroque-style villa in Dubai’s Emirates Hills and beginning to buy parcels on Naia Island, a luxury development taking shape off the UAE coast.

Mr Mittal has been a major donor to Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and he previously contributed more than £5m to the party.

The Sunday Times first reported in March that he was preparing to leave the UK as Labour moved to end the non-dom system, which allowed residents with foreign domiciles to shield overseas income and capital gains from UK tax.

The Independent has reached out to ArcelorMittal for a comment.

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