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David Reuben, the 88-year-old property magnate who shares second place on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with his brother Simon, has left his longtime home in London’s Holland Park for Monaco. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index puts David Reuben’s personal fortune alone at roughly $13.1 billion.
The brothers had held non-domiciled, or “non-dom,” status, which for decades let wealthy UK residents pay tax only on income earned or brought into the country, while income and assets held abroad stayed out of reach of the taxman. Britain scrapped that regime last year, and the change did more than just widen the income tax net: it also brought the worldwide assets of long-term UK residents within scope of the country’s 40% inheritance tax.
Monaco, by contrast, levies no income tax, no capital gains tax, and no inheritance tax at all, making it one of the preferred landing spots for Europe’s wealthiest families once a home jurisdiction’s tax treatment of inherited and offshore wealth changes.
Reuben’s move is the latest in a string of departures since the non-dom regime was abolished, part of a broader reshuffling of where Britain’s richest residents choose to keep their primary address. The brothers built their fortune across property, metals trading, and a wide portfolio of international investments, and had been fixtures of the UK rich list for years before this year’s relocation.
The timing has drawn attention well beyond Britain. California voters are currently deciding Proposition 40, a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the accumulated wealth of the state’s billionaires to help fund health care, food assistance, and public education programs. Advocates for the measure argue it would raise significant revenue from a small number of residents; opponents point to cases like Reuben’s as a warning that high-net-worth individuals can and do relocate when a jurisdiction’s tax treatment of wealth shifts meaningfully. With Prop 40 on the ballot, Reuben’s exit from the UK is being read on both sides of the Atlantic as a live test case of how mobile billionaire wealth really is when the rules change.
