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UK's biz tycoons to flee high-taxed Britain: Report

Britain's leading entrepreneurs are considering to leave the country as a mark of protest against UK chancellor Alistair Darling's new 50% tax rate.

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Britain's leading entrepreneurs are considering to leave the country as a mark of protest against UK chancellor Alistair Darling's new 50 per cent tax rate, a media report says.

"Hugh Osmond, the pubs to insurance entrepreneur, is thinking about a move to Switzerland. Peter Hargreaves, the 10 million-pound-a-year co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, the financial adviser, is looking at the Isle of Man or Monaco,"
the Sunday Times said adding, "More are likely to follow."

As per the latest budget, from next year anyone earning more than 150,000 pounds a year will have to pay 50 per cent as income tax. The move replaced the 45 per cent tax bracket threatened in the pre-budget report last November.

Businessmen have warned that raising taxes on the rich would do nothing to boost the exchequer, as the wealthy can always find ways to avoid it.

Hargreaves, who is facing an extra 500,000 pounds on his tax bill was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying: "I won't pay, I'll leave." Robert Pfeiffer, a partner at Compass Advisers, a mergers and acquisitions firm, said that businesses such as his did not need to be based in Britain.

"We all love living in London but in the end it becomes an economic decision. The clients don't care."

Pfeiffer told the Sunday Times that he and his partners were discussing a move to Geneva. "Do we want the hassle of moving? Probably not. But there comes a point economically when it's hard to justify being here," he said.

Dozens of Britain's best-known business figures have condemned the new tax grab. Sir Richard Branson said it was a "block to the next wave of entrepreneurs". Tim Waterstone, founder of the Waterstone's bookshop chain, slammed the tax as a "disincentive to entrepreneurs".

Osmond, whose net worth is estimated at 230 million pounds, said: "A lot of people will be off. It's highly unlikely that I will continue to have the UK as my country of residence. It's just as easy to work from any close location — Switzerland or wherever."

The budget revealed that the UK's national net debt has climbed to 743.6 billion pounds. The Treasury has said the new tax on high earners will raise about two billion pounds a year to help mend the hole in public finances.

Stanley Fink, the former chief executive of hedge fund Man Group, said: "Nobody believes that 50 per cent is a natural stopping point. There's nothing to say for the richest it won't go to 60 per cent, say for those earning over 200,000 pounds.

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