Ed Balls: ‘Arcane’ tax rules are ‘ridiculous’

Ed Miliband has made waves this morning with his announcement that a Labour Government would end the non-dom tax status.

It is banned in the US, and many other countries, and has become controversial in the UK. It is seen by some commentators as a loophole that allows people who sometimes simply have one parent born overseas from paying their fair share of taxes in the UK.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has been doing the broadcast rounds this morning saying that it will bring in “hundreds of millions of pounds”. A drop in the ocean in terms of balancing the books, but Mr Balls suggests that this is about more than just money.

He told BBC Breakfast: “When most people in our country pay tax on all of their income, it’s not clear why a small number of people based upon very arcane historic rules should play by different rules.”

He added that no one was quite sure how much money would be saved because it was unknown how much money the “non-doms” hold offshore.

“And I think what we’ve learnt since 2008 is that not only are these rules unfair and a bit ridiculous – it all depends upon where your father was born and whether you can show you’ve got a graveyard plot already purchased in another part of the world – but also there’s abuse going on here,” he added.