As Tim Worstall puts it: Mark Steel: Idiot Quite. This is what Mark Steel, idiot, writes: New Labour certainly keep their promises. Before they were elected, they promised to reform the loophole that enables the super-rich to avoid paying tax, by claiming "non-domicile tax status". And now, 11 years later, they’re still promising to do it.
This ruse involves living in Britain while not being an official resident, and is one of the main ways in which the richest 54 billionaires in the country have paid on average 1 and a half per cent tax. Steel is, of course, not alone. I have read the same sort of 'NonDoms pay no tax' thing so many times. But as Tim writes, this is complete nonsense: If you are not resident in the UK you do not pay tax at all in the UK. Non-doms are resident in the UK which is why they pay full UK tax on their UK earnings and full UK tax on earnings from other countries which they bring into the UK. But because they are resident but not domiciled they do not pay UK tax on money that they earn in other countries and do not bring into the UK. If they were not residents we would call them non-residents: the fact that we call them non-domiciles rather than non-residents might be the smallest of clues to the fact that they are not "living in Britain while not being an official resident". Steel isn't just an idiot. He's also one of that breed of lefty comedians who aren't remotely funny.