Global Courant
Paul Mosely, a British man living in China
Paul Mosely is desperate to return to Britain with his wife. After a life spent mostly in Beijing, China, the 70-year-old yearns for “the green and pleasant land of England” but the looming threat of estate taxes keeps him away.
He says: “We would think it fair enough to succumb to UK taxes on our pensions and investments, as a price worth paying, but there is no way my wife should have left 40 per cent of her wealth on her eventual death. the government will give. for them to waste.
The Telegraph is campaigning to end the divisive 40 per cent. More than 50 MPs, including Liz Truss and Nadhim Zahawi, have now called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to abolish it.
Originally from Essex, Mr. Mosely first went to China in the 1970s as a doctoral student in engineering, and like many others in the brain drain of the time, he stayed there because his employer paid his living expenses at the time.
Promotions came thick and fast, and Mr. Mosely planted roots. In 2003, he was general manager of a sustainable mining company based in Beijing.
Mr. Mosely married locally in the 1980s, and together he and his wife Xiaomo raised a bilingual family while investing his earnings without the threat of capital gains taxes.
Mr Mosely, who still resides in the United Kingdom, is aware that any money left after his death is taxed at 40 per cent. transferred his money to Xiaominow 63.
Ms Mosely invested the money and made sure they stay out of the UK.
Paul Mosley and Xiaomi
China has no inheritance tax at all. The only taxes that apply after death are on real estate: a capital transfer fee that makes up about 10 percent of a property’s value. In addition, beneficiaries who sell an inherited home must pay 20 percent. pay taxes on the income.
The basic estate tax allowance in Britain has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009. This, coupled with the explosion in house prices over the past decade, has resulted in an increasing number of ordinary families paying the tax.
Amid Tory MPs are urging the Prime Minister to abolish estate taxes here in Britain is Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for South Thanet.
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He says: “The Treasury’s attachment to estate tax seems increasingly out of step with any international comparative tax system.
“It is a tax on ambition, a drag on growth and not in line with conservative values.
“If social-democratic Sweden and communist China can do without it, so can we. We must have the courage to scrap it.”
Inheritance tax only applies to taxpayers living in the UK – and despite having lived in Beijing for most of his life, Mr Mosely continues to live here.
His estate, divided between real estate, stocks and shares, is sure to incur a hefty estate tax bill.
“We have three properties in Beijing, one in England and one in Portugal,” he says.
“I’ve put as much as possible in my wife’s name, but my concern is that because I’m a man and older, I’ll die before she does.”
Mosely says Xiaomo will probably move to Britain when she becomes a widow. He says: “By the time she dies she could have lived in the UK for 15 years, and then she’ll have to pay inheritance tax.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Mosely says he is miserable. Beijing has lost its appeal now that he’s retired – and he wants to live the rest of his years in Kent, where he and his wife own a house.
“I don’t see anything wrong with paying income tax on pensions, that’s fair do’s. But if inheritance tax is going to keep us away, then the UK won’t even get the other tax.”
