69,000 people told HMRC they were leaving. The wealthy mostly use a different form.

On 29 September 2026, the accountancy group UHY Hacker Young published HMRC figures showing that 69,000 taxpayers filed a P85 form in the 2025/26 tax year to tell HMRC they were leaving the UK. The year before, the figure was about 52,000, so the increase is 32%.

The numbers come from UHY’s own release, carried the same day by WealthBriefing and London Loves Business. HMRC has not put out a statement of its own on the data, so the figure has a single origin.

What UHY says is driving it

UHY links the rise to tax changes made since the July 2024 general election. Its list covers higher capital gains tax, the inheritance tax changes, the increase in employer National Insurance, higher stamp duty on rental property and VAT on school fees. The end of the non-dom regime is also part of its explanation. Under the replacement rules, worldwide assets come into UK inheritance tax after ten years of residence instead of fifteen.

Neela Chauhan, a private client tax partner at the firm, said the trend reached beyond business owners to working people who did not see themselves as wealthy. She named Sweden, which has no inheritance tax, as one destination drawing interest.

UHY is open about the limits. Plenty of leavers never file the form, so it treats the count as an indicator of direction and not as a census. London Loves Business added a caveat of its own: the figures do not show that tax caused the rise, and people leave for jobs, family and retirement too.

Who actually files a P85

What the form is for matters more than either caveat. HMRC’s guidance describes the P85 as the way to tell HMRC you are leaving and to “claim back tax from your UK employment”. It asks for the P45. And it says plainly that you do not need to fill it in if you are sending a Self Assessment return for the tax year in which you leave.

Principals of family offices are, in the main, Self Assessment filers: investment income and gains put them there. On HMRC’s own guidance, a departing entrepreneur or long-term resident in that position deals with the year of departure through the return and has no need of a P85. The 69,000 is mostly a count of departing employees reclaiming PAYE. It tells us something about mobility in the UK workforce. About the wealthy it says very little, in either direction.

That is not a reason to dismiss the figure. A 32% rise among salaried leavers is real. But it cannot carry the weight the “exodus” headlines put on it, and that applies to the people they are mainly about. We made a similar point when Chris Rokos was reported to be moving to Athens: single names are anecdotes, and the official counts of wealthy departures are still thin.

What it means for families and their advisers

Chancellor John Healey presents his first Budget on 28 October 2026, and departure statistics will be used on both sides of the argument before then. Families weighing a move should treat this one with care. If they do leave, the record that counts with HMRC is the Self Assessment return and its residence claim under the statutory residence test, backed by day counts and evidence of ties. A P85 does not do that job. With the ten-year inheritance tax tail and the pension changes due in April 2027, a well-documented exit matters more than the headline count of who else is going.

Sources: WealthBriefing, 29 September 2026; London Loves Business, 29 September 2026; HMRC, P85 guidance; Civil Service World, Budget date.