A record 69,300 taxpayers filed P85 forms in the 2025/26 tax year, the paperwork used to tell HMRC a person is leaving the U.K. permanently. That was up 32% from 52,000 the year before, according to analysis of HMRC data by UHY Hacker Young, as reported by The Telegraph.
The number is likely higher, since many people who leave do not file the form. Fortune reported that the wave of departures is not limited to billionaires. It also includes workers who say they want better sunshine, better healthcare and a different lifestyle.
The pressure on households has been building. Fortune cited the end of the non-dom regime announced by the Conservative government in March 2024, along with higher Stamp Duty on rental properties, VAT on private school fees and rises in Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax and employers’ National Insurance contributions.
Natasha Stanley, head of coaching at Careershifters, said she could not think of a single client who had left for tax reasons. 'For tax purposes specifically, I can’t think of anyone,' she told Fortune. Instead, she said, many were moving for lifestyle reasons and more sunshine.
Stanley also said some people are leaving because they are watching the NHS crumble and looking for better national services elsewhere. She pointed to Spain and Switzerland as destinations where professionals have been relocating.
Spain ranked first in InterNations’ Expat Insider Quality of Life Index for the fifth year running. Fortune said one in five expats there cited better quality of life as their main reason for moving, while 89% were happy with the climate and 83% with healthcare.
The job market, however, was not the main attraction. Spain ranked in the bottom ten for countries to work abroad.
Even among the wealthy, tax is only part of the story. Henley & Partners said safety, climate and healthcare are common reasons millionaires move, and its 2024 report cited the U.K.’s 'deteriorating' healthcare system and 'increasing safety concerns' in cities like London as drivers of millionaire departures.
Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal has left Britain after three decades for the Alps, where hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard and Ipsen heiress Anne Beaufour also live, according to Fortune.
The market has already voted on Britain’s mix of higher taxes, weaker services and falling appeal. Capital and labor do not stay loyal to a system that keeps raising the bill while public goods deteriorate. When government makes work and investment less rewarding, people look elsewhere.
