Carol Colburn Høgel, the US concert pianist and philanthropist, is leaving Britain as a direct result of the government's tax on high-earning, non-domiciled foreigners .
Chicago-born Høgel, who has lived in Scotland for 24 years, declared in a letter to The Scotsman newspaper she would be ‘heading back to North America, where an individual with involvement in, and charitable contributions to, visual arts and classical music is valued, not punished’.
Although chancellor Alistair Darling altered his plan for the £30,000 yearly levy on non-doms who have lived in the UK for at least seven years, by permitting some to offset the charge against tax paid in the individual's country of origin, Hogel will still return to the US.
During her stay in Scotland, she reportedly gifted £20m through her charitable trust, the Dunard Fund, and those organisations who have benefited include the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Edinburgh International Festival, whose £1.5m debt was eased by a £500,000 donation from Høgel.
Further reading:
Crackdown set to spark non-dom exodus
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