Around 69,300 taxpayers filed P85 forms, the paperwork used to tell HMRC you’re leaving the U.K. permanently, in the 2025/26 tax year. 

That’s up 32% from 52,000 the year before, according to analysis of HMRC data by accountancy group UHY Hacker Young, as reported by The Telegraph. 

The true number is likely higher, since many people who leave don’t file one.

It’s no secret that there’s been a wave of wealthy residents quitting Britain, with the biggest TK occurring after the Conservative government announced the end of the non-dom regime in March 2024, months before handing over the reins to the Labour party. 

Higher Stamp Duty on rental properties, VAT on private school fees and rises in Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax and employers’ National Insurance contributions have also added to the squeeze on households’ finances.

But not everyone is packing up over the tax bill. 

Natasha Stanley, head of coaching at the careers site Careershifters, has helped thousands of people change careers and start fresh for well over a decade—and she says she can’t think of a single client who has left for tax reasons. “For tax purposes specifically, I can’t think of anyone,” she told Fortune.

Saving money gets most of the blame for the exodus—career coach says it’s actually sunshine and lifestyle 

So if it isn’t tax pulling people abroad, what is it? According to Stanley, it’s the life on offer.

“Lots of people are moving for lifestyle purposes and more sunshine,” Stanley said. 

Some move to be with partners from other countries. Others, she added, are watching the NHS (Britain’s National Health Service) crumble and looking at where they can get better national services elsewhere. 

But most people have simply had enough of grinding through the grey weather. She pointed to Spain and Switzerland as two destinations that she’s seen professionals happily relocating to.

“Others just think, I’m done with the rat race here, and if I’m going to change career, I might as well take this opportunity to live somewhere that offers me the kind of lifestyle that I’m looking for,” Stanley added. 

Research shows she has a point

Spain has just topped InterNations’ Expat Insider Quality of Life Index for the fifth year running, and one in five expats there say a better quality of life was their main reason for moving. Around 89% are happy with the climate, and 83% with the quality of healthcare. 

And it certainly isn’t the job market pulling them in: Spain ranked in the bottom ten for countries to work abroad.

Even among the wealthy, tax isn’t the only pull. Henley & Partners, which advises wealthy clients on relocating, lists safety, lifestyle factors such as climate, and healthcare among the common reasons millionaires move, and its 2024 report cited the U.K.’s “deteriorating” healthcare system and “increasing safety concerns” in cities like London as drivers of its millionaire exodus. 

And much like the expats Stanley has come across, the ultra-wealthy are also eyeing up Switzerland, where the tax bills are comparatively low, the healthcare is smoother and the views are straight off a postcard. Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal has just left Britain after three decades for the Alps, which is now also home to hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard and Ipsen heiress Anne Beaufour, among others.