David Reuben, said to have fled a UK wealth tax, has been tax resident in Monaco since at least 2014

The records that contradict the story were all public. When Reuben took a directorship at the Reuben foundation in July 2019, the UK company registry recorded him as "usually resident" in Monaco ^[7]. His spokesperson confirmed the TaxWatch finding ^[2][3]. A residency dating from at least 2014 began about ten years before Labour came to power in 2024 ^[19]. "When we started looking into this, we were surprised that publicly available documents completely contradicted a major news story," Mike Lewis, the director of TaxWatch, told the Guardian ^[11].

The family's arrangements were settled long before this budget cycle. David and his brother Simon share a combined estimated wealth of almost £28bn ^[4]. Simon has lived in Monaco for 40 years, having moved there on health grounds while he had cancer ^[5]. Monaco imposes no income tax, capital gains tax or inheritance tax ^[6]. The brothers were reported to be non-doms, paying UK tax only on UK income, until Rachel Reeves, then chancellor, abolished that system last April ^[9]. Their London holdings include Burlington Arcade, Admiralty Arch and Millbank Tower ^[18].

Departures are real all the same. Lakshmi Mittal, Nassef Sawiris and John Fredriksen are among those who have left, according to the Guardian ^[16]. The £121bn figure, though, puts people who left and people who loosened ties into one number ^[15]. The Guardian's report does not say whether the Reubens are counted in it. If their almost £28bn were, it would be about 23% of the total ^[20].

The other side of the argument runs on anecdote too. Clive Lewis, the Labour MP who campaigns for a wealth tax, said: "We can see that many of these billionaires don't reside here anyway, many of them do stay here, and those who want to go, we can't stop them anyway." ^[14] He offered the Guardian no figure for how many stay. I would give his account the same weight as the original Reuben report: a claim from an interested party, pending records.

The planning stakes sit in the autumn budget. "The autumn budget may see some of the biggest changes in years to how gains from wealth are taxed," Mike Lewis said ^[13]. Capital gains tax may rise this autumn, and inheritance tax changes in Reeves's budget were already blamed for pushing wealthy residents out ^[17].

For a leader deciding this quarter, the trade-off is speed against reliability. Acting on reported departures now gives a head start if the reports hold. It also means rework next quarter if they fall apart the way this one did. Waiting for filings and counts costs a few months. Mike Lewis set out the standard he wants applied: "Perhaps it's time that our politicians, and our media, debate these changes based on public facts and verifiable numbers," he said ^[12].