West Ham United's chairman has criticised the Government’s proposed crackdown on non-doms as "isn’t very nice", while slashing the asking price of his London mansion by £10m amid a challenging prime property market. David Sullivan, who holds a majority stake in the football club, admitted he was selling the property at a loss. The Marylebone mansion, currently listed with Knight Frank for £65m, boasts 10 bedrooms and bathrooms, along with luxury features such as a swimming pool, spa, cinema room, gym and wine cellar.
However, Mr Sullivan revealed that he purchased it for £27m in 2015, and poured nearly £50m into renovations, bringing the total expenditure to around £75m. "I’m selling it at a loss now, but you have to be realistic," he confessed to Bloomberg. "Interest rates are high — they’re coming down but not much.
I also think what the Government is doing to the non-doms isn’t very nice, and a lot of rich people are leaving the country as a result of what they anticipate in the Budget ." He added: "Three or four of my friends have already gone to Monaco or Dubai." Labour has promised in its election manifesto to clamp down on so-called non-doms, referring to UK residents whose permanent home, or domicile, is outside of the UK for tax purposes.
At present, non-doms only need to pay tax on their UK earnings. The forthcoming Budget statement could bring about a change in policy, following Labour's declaration that it would abolish "the outdated non-dom tax r.