Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal quits UK ahead of proposed taxes on super-rich: Report

Indian-origin steel magnate Lakshmi N Mittal, until now based in Britain and a regular on the country’s richest billionaires tally, has decided to quit the UK as the Labour Party-led government’s feared tax shake-up for the super-rich nears, according to a UK media report on Sunday. Rajasthan-born Mittal is a resident in Switzerland for tax and will now spend much of his future in Dubai, according to the The Sunday Times.

The founder of ArcelorMittal steelworks is worth an estimated 15.4 billion pounds as per the 2025 ‘Sunday Times Rich List’, which ranked him the UK’s eighth richest man.

Now, the newspaper references sources close to the 75-year-old industrialist to claim he has become the latest billionaire to leave the UK ahead of a much-anticipated Budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday. Mittal already has a mansion in Dubai and has now bought up “tracts of an intriguing development on the nearby Naïa Island” in the UAE, the newspaper claims.

The news of Mittal’s exit comes ahead of expected tax rises on the wealthy as Reeves tries to address a 20 billion pounds hole in the UK’s finances. In her first Budget tabled last year after Labour’s general election win, there were increases to capital gains tax, a reduction of the tax relief for entrepreneurs selling their ventures and new taxes on the way family companies are passed down to future generations.

Rumours of further levies in her second Budget as Chancellor next week, including a possible 20 per cent exit tax on those leaving the UK, have caused much unease among the wealthy.