Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa August 2015 | Page 62

FINANCE

Budget 2015

Key points for property owners in the UK
BY MIKE SMUTS

F

ollowing one of the most decisive elections in
the United Kingdom in many years, the first
all-Conservative Budget since November 1996
was heavily focused on housing and saw a series of tax
changes affecting foreign and British buyers. We take a
brief look at the main components here:
Changes to ‘non-dom’ tax status
The Budget focused as much on making taxation
fairer as on reducing it. In particular, the Chancellor
overhauled non-domiciled status. Non-doms are either
wealthy foreigners who are residents in the UK, or
Britons with ties overseas who are not eligible for tax
on overseas income if they register their permanent
home (‘domicile’) as outside of Britain.

“The Government will abolish
permanent non-dom status.”
From April 20