French Bankers Are Moving To London To Escape Steep Taxes

Business Insider ^ | 08/20/2012 | Reuters

[SeekAndFind]

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - The City of London financial district, though diminished by scandals and job cuts, is proving irresistible to fed-up Parisian bankers fleeing France's rising taxes and the feeling that they're not best loved at home.

French financial groups big and small, from advisory firms and private equity houses to big banks like Societe Generale, are looking at London as a possible shelter from a new 75 percent tax rate on top French earners, bankers say.

Take Bertrand Meunier, who recently agreed to move to London to take a job at private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, leaving a long-term leadership position at PAI Partners, a private equity firm that was spun off from French bank BNP Paribasover a decade ago.

The tax picture played a part in his decision, Meunier acknowledges, but so too did a wider sense that London rewards work and entrepreneurship, while many of his compatriots take a jaundiced view of financial success. "I have many friends and family members here, and they've tried to convince me to move for a while," he told Reuters. "I think that London is quite extraordinary; the buildings are small, it's very green, people have a good attitude towards work and wealth.

[Chode]

it's truly bizarre when England is considered a tax haven...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cincinna.

[Lancey Howard]

Only a matter if time before they rampage through middle class neighborhoods and destroy property and businesses in France’s cities.

Good thing for those middle class French folks they've got guns in their houses to protect themselves and their property.

[Cincinna]

I don’t think there is a comparison between France and the US on this.
Hollande got 96% of the Muslim vote. The middle class white vote, and upper class parts of Paris and suburbs like Neuilly went for Sarko 70-80%.