30 news pieces a day in 2024 on non-existent exodus
A millionaire exodus widely reported by news outlets around the world in 2024, and credited for the UK Labour government’s decision to weaken tax reforms, did not occur, the Tax Justice Network reveals.
The media reporting – consisting of over 10,900 news pieces across print, broadcast and online news in 2024 – was primarily based on a report published by Henley & Partners1, a firm that sells golden passports to the superrich and advises governments on setting up such schemes. The European Court of Justice recently ruled one such scheme, that of Malta, to be unlawful.2
The Tax Justice Network’s review – co-published with Patriotic Millionaires UK and Tax Justice UK – of the Henley report finds that the number of millionaires claimed by Henley & Partners to be leaving countries in “exodus” in 2024 represented near-0% of those countries’ millionaire populations.3 For example, the 9500 millionaires widely reported to be leaving the UK in 2024 represented 0.3% of the UK’s 3.06 million millionaires.4
Media reporting widely blamed the alleged millionaire exodus on tax policies in the same year that calls for a wealth tax on the superrich gained unprecedented momentum globally.5 The media reporting was equivalent to 30 news pieces a day on the non-existent millionaire exodus across 2024.
Reviewing the full period from 2013 to 2024 for which the Henley report presents estimates on millionaire migration, the Tax Justice Network finds that millionaire migration rates consistently stood at near-0% for every year.6 Academic studies consistently show that the tax responses of the wealthy involves minimal levels of migration.7
Henley’s estimates, when put into perspective, reveal a picture that is at complete odds with the report’s narrative and media coverage: millionaires are highly immobile, and nearly 100% of millionaires have not relocated to a new country since 2013, if Henley’s estimates are to be taken at face value.
Henley & Partners was accused in a 2018 UK Parliamentary inquiry of meddling in the elections of Caribbean nations in return for the exclusive rights to sell golden passports.8 Henley & Partners told The Guardian it “fundamentally rejects any allegation of wrongdoing”.9 A recent Financial Times article identified an EU-sanctioned Russian businessman with links to the Ukraine invasion who could more easily circumvent travel restrictions due to a Maltese golden passport Henley helped him acquire in the past.10 A spokesperson for Henley & Partners told the Financial Times that while she “could not comment on individual cases because of missing information and data protection… an individual ‘may pass all the stringent due diligence tests imposed, but still go on to engage in criminal activity.’”11
Golden passports are now illegal in the EU following a successful court challenge brought by the European Commission against Malta’s scheme, on which Henley & Partners had advised. The Commission said such schemes pose serious risks for money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.12 Henley & Partners told media in response that it was “disappointed” but that the decision “will only increase the demand for specialized advisors”.13
Findings behind Labour climbdown riddled with problems
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