Maritime Leaders Warn Over Domicile Tax Changes

by Caroline Maxwell, Tax-News.com, London

03 April 2002

The heads of five prominent UK maritime bodies have joined forces to warn Chancellor Gordon Brown over planned changes to the tax status of wealthy non-UK domiciled citizens.

In an open letter to The Times last week, David Cobb, Chairman of Maritime London, Peter Kitching, Chairman of the Baltic Exchange, David Moorhouse, Chairman of Lloyd's Register, Richard Paniguian, President of the Chamber of Shipping, and Richard Sayer, Chairman of the Admiralty Solicitors' Group, warned Mr Brown that the consequences of removing tax privileges for those resident in the UK but domiciled elsewhere for tax purposes after four years would be disastrous for the shipping industry.

'If the reported legislation were to be enacted, London's foreign shipping interests would leave the UK, job losses in the maritime sector would follow, and valuable foreign currency earnings would be lost,' the shipping industry leaders predicted. However, they also cautioned that the aftershocks from such a reform would not just be limited to the maritime sector.

'The loss of major players in other industry sectors would diminish London's position as the world's leading financial, trade and business centre,' the five men warned, pointing to similar changes made in the United States under the Kennedy administration which drove away foreign shipping interests and irreparably damaged the country's reputation as a leading shipping centre.

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