Reform UK Reworks Its Offer to Wealthy Foreigners

Reform UK is preparing to revise its Britannia Card proposal for wealthy foreign residents and investors. The published version would charge a one-off £250,000 contribution in exchange for a renewable 10-year residence permit and preferential treatment of overseas income and assets. Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, says the party can make the offer more attractive, but the revised terms have yet to be published.

Reform UK Wants to Strengthen the Britannia Card

Reform UK plans to revisit the Britannia Card if it forms the next government. On September 7, Robert Jenrick said Britain should aim to offer one of the world’s most attractive regimes for wealthy investors and draw back affluent taxpayers who have left the country. He said the party believed it could improve the existing proposal but did not disclose the future price, tax exemptions or detailed immigration terms. Bloomberg reported.

Jenrick had already signalled a rewrite in April. He said at the time that a future regime should appeal not just to ultra-wealthy investors but also to entrepreneurs, young professionals and people who had left Britain, with further details expected later in 2026.

The distinction between a proposal and existing law is important. The Britannia Card cannot currently be obtained and confers no immigration or tax rights. Britain’s former Tier 1 Investor route has been closed to new applicants since February 2022, and immigration-rule changes published in September 2026 are removing remaining obsolete provisions relating to applications and extensions under that legacy route.

The Published Plan Charges £250,000 for 10-Year Residence

The original Britannia Card proposal, launched in 2025, calls for a one-off £250,000 contribution in exchange for a renewable 10-year multi-entry residence permit.

Its public materials say cardholders would pay UK tax on UK income while receiving favourable treatment for overseas income, capital gains and wealth. Reform also promises inheritance-tax protection.

The published description, however, leaves important technical questions unresolved. One section refers broadly to no inheritance tax, while another refers specifically to no inheritance tax on UK assets. The site also describes the arrangement as involving the remittance basis while elsewhere promising no tax on foreign income or gains. Those formulations do not establish precisely how income brought into Britain would be treated. The exact scope would have to be settled in legislation.

Reform has said the £250,000 contributions would be passed to low-paid workers, with the original policy designed around roughly 2.5 million lower-paid full-time employees.

There is still no published legislation setting out source-of-funds checks, minimum physical-presence requirements, rights for dependants or the conditions for renewing the residence permit.

Britain Ended the Old Non-Dom Tax System in 2025

The Britannia Card debate follows the biggest overhaul of the UK tax treatment of internationally mobile wealthy residents in decades.

Until April 6, 2025, some UK residents whose domicile was outside Britain could use the remittance basis. Subject to detailed rules, foreign income and gains could remain outside UK taxation unless brought to or used in Britain.

That system ended on April 6, 2025. Domicile ceased to be the central connecting factor for taxing foreign income and gains and was replaced by a residence-based framework. UK residents who are not eligible for the new-arrival regime are generally taxed on worldwide income and gains as they arise.

The shift matters particularly for long-term residents holding investment portfolios, companies or family assets in multiple jurisdictions.

New Residents Still Receive Four Years of Relief

Britain did not eliminate tax incentives for international arrivals entirely. It replaced the old remittance basis with the four-year Foreign Income and Gains regime, or FIG.

A qualifying individual can claim relief on eligible foreign income and gains during the first four years of UK tax residence after at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence. The four-year period begins when UK tax residence starts and cannot be extended by spending an intervening year outside Britain.

This creates an important comparison with the original Britannia Card. A newly arrived entrepreneur or highly paid professional who qualifies for FIG already has access to temporary foreign-income relief without making an upfront £250,000 payment.

The Britannia Card is therefore potentially much more valuable to people with very large offshore income and asset bases who intend to remain in Britain beyond the four-year FIG window.

Inheritance Tax Is Now Tied to Long-Term Residence

The 2025 reform also changed the inheritance-tax treatment of overseas assets.

Foreign assets may come within the UK inheritance-tax net once an individual becomes a long-term UK resident. Broadly, that status applies after UK tax residence in at least 10 of the preceding 20 tax years. A person who leaves Britain may remain within the long-term-residence rules for between three and 10 further tax years, depending on the length of previous UK residence.

For families with substantial international wealth, the inheritance-tax exposure can be more significant than annual taxation of investment income. A change of tax residence can affect the long-term treatment of assets held across several countries.

Inheritance-tax protection is consequently one of the potentially most valuable elements of the Britannia Card for very wealthy applicants. Its exact value cannot be assessed until Reform clarifies the scope of the promised exemption.

A Transitional Facility Encourages Offshore Capital to Return

Britain also introduced a temporary arrangement for former remittance-basis users.

The Temporary Repatriation Facility allows eligible foreign income and gains arising before April 6, 2025 to be designated and brought to the UK at a special rate. The charge is 12% in 2025/26 and 2026/27 and rises to 15% in 2027/28.

The government expected the broader non-dom reforms to raise revenue. The Office for Budget Responsibility-certified costing published with the 2024 Autumn Budget projected an Exchequer gain of about £4.17 billion in 2026/27, £5.895 billion in 2027/28 and £2.545 billion in 2028/29. Those numbers are forecasts incorporating assumed behavioural responses rather than revenue already collected.

That behavioural response is central to the Britannia Card argument. A more favourable regime could preserve revenue if higher taxes are causing substantial numbers of major taxpayers to leave. It could reduce revenue if most beneficiaries would have remained in Britain and paid tax under the existing system.

Official Data Do Not Yet Measure the Post-Reform Impact

The latest HM Revenue & Customs statistics cover the 2024/25 tax year, which ended immediately before the new rules took effect.

HMRC estimates that there were at least 81,900 non-domiciled and deemed-domiciled taxpayers in the year ending 2025, down 1% from the previous year. Around 73,400 people directly claimed non-domiciled taxpayer status, a decline of 0.5%.

Combined Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and National Insurance liabilities for the two groups rose 9% to £13.6 billion. Non-domiciled taxpayers alone accounted for around £9.7 billion of liabilities, 7% more than a year earlier. HMRC explicitly notes that the data pre-date the April 2025 reform and cannot measure its impact.

That leaves an important evidence gap in claims of a large-scale wealth exodus. High-profile departures are visible, but comprehensive official data for the first year under the new system are not yet available.

Chris Rokos Is Moving His Tax Residence to Greece

One of the most prominent recent cases is Chris Rokos, founder of Rokos Capital Management. The billionaire hedge-fund manager is preparing to shift his residence from the UK to Greece and open an Athens office.

His macro hedge fund manages about $22 billion, and Rokos has been among Britain’s largest individual taxpayers. Greece offers qualifying wealthy new residents a flat annual tax of €100,000 on foreign income for up to 15 years, subject to conditions including an investment requirement.

A single departure cannot establish the scale of wealth migration. It does illustrate the international competition Britain faces from jurisdictions willing to put a predictable annual price on the tax treatment of foreign income.

Economists Disagree Over the Britannia Card’s Fiscal Cost

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the revenue effect of Reform’s proposal is uncertain. Because Reform intends to redistribute the £250,000 fees to lower-paid workers, the contributions themselves would be broadly neutral for the Exchequer. What matters is who buys the card.

New residents attracted specifically by the policy could generate substantial UK tax revenue from domestic income and activity. Existing or prospective residents who would have stayed anyway could instead use the card to avoid taxes they would otherwise have paid on foreign income and gains. The IFS also questioned a return to remittance-based taxation because taxing money when it is brought into Britain can discourage holders from bringing foreign capital into the country.

Tax Policy Associates has reached a much more negative estimate, putting the potential cost of the original proposal at around £34 billion over five years. Its analysis uses official projections for revenue from the non-dom reforms and assumes that some people who would otherwise pay UK tax on foreign income would instead purchase the card. It also argues that the £250,000 upfront cost could deter highly paid professionals who are affluent but do not have the offshore wealth of ultra-high-net-worth investors.

That £34 billion figure is an independent estimate rather than an official government costing. Reform argues that a more competitive regime would attract additional residents, investment and taxable economic activity in Britain.

The UK Is Competing With Other Wealth Regimes

The Britannia Card is being reconsidered while several European jurisdictions compete directly for wealthy international residents through special tax regimes.

The UK currently has no open equivalent of its former Tier 1 Investor visa for new applicants. Wealthy individuals must qualify through other immigration routes while dealing separately with their UK tax status. The Britannia Card would combine long-term residence with a preferential tax regime.

That structure could be particularly valuable to people with large international portfolios. Its economics would look very different for an entrepreneur whose income is primarily UK-based: the £250,000 upfront payment could exceed the tax saving.

As International Investment experts report, the core question is whether a future Britannia Card would attract enough genuinely additional taxpayers to offset the tax relief granted to people who would have lived in Britain anyway. There is not yet enough official post-reform data to measure the scale of wealth migration after the abolition of the old non-dom rules. The original proposal is clearly more attractive to holders of very large overseas fortunes than to ordinary highly paid professionals, while inconsistencies in the published tax description still need to be resolved. A reliable assessment will require Reform UK to publish the revised price, immigration conditions and exact scope of the tax exemptions.

FAQ: Britannia Card and UK Tax Rules

What is the Britannia Card?

The Britannia Card is a Reform UK proposal for wealthy internationally mobile residents. The published version envisages a £250,000 one-off contribution in return for renewable 10-year residence and preferential treatment of overseas income and assets.

Is the Britannia Card currently available?

No. As of September 8, 2026, it remains a party proposal. It is not an existing UK visa or tax status.

Has Reform UK published the revised scheme?

No. Robert Jenrick says the party wants to improve the offer, but the detailed terms of the revised Britannia Card have not yet been released.

Has the UK abolished the non-dom regime?

The old domicile-based remittance regime ended on April 6, 2025. The tax treatment of foreign income and gains is now primarily based on residence.

What is the FIG regime?

The Foreign Income and Gains regime is a four-year relief available to qualifying new UK tax residents. It can exempt eligible foreign income and gains during their first four years of residence following at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence.

Can overseas assets be subject to UK inheritance tax?

Yes. Overseas assets may enter the UK inheritance-tax net once an individual becomes a long-term UK resident. Broadly, the key test is UK tax residence in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years.

Does Britain currently have an investor visa?

The Tier 1 Investor route has been closed to new applicants since February 2022. A future Britannia Card would create a new route if Reform implemented the proposal in government.

Has a large exodus of wealthy residents been proven?

Comprehensive official post-reform data are not yet available. The latest HMRC non-dom statistics cover 2024/25 and therefore pre-date the new rules introduced in April 2025.

How much could the Britannia Card cost the Treasury?

There is no official costing. Tax Policy Associates estimates that the original proposal could cost around £34 billion over five years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the overall revenue effect is uncertain and will depend mainly on how people respond to the policy.