Billionaire David Reuben Leaves Britain for Monaco After Tax Crackdown

David Reuben, the 88-year-old property magnate valued at $13.1 billion by Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, has left his Holland Park home for Monaco this summer. A spokesman for the brothers recently confirmed the move, which The Times first reported.

Reuben shares second place on the Sunday Times Rich List with his brother Simon. Their combined fortune is estimated at almost £28 billion.

Why did Reuben leave now?

The brothers were reported to have been non-doms, a status that let them pay U.K. tax only on income earned or brought into the country. Britain abolished that regime roughly 18 months ago.

The new residence-based system took effect April 6, 2025, as Fortune previously reported. The change also brought long-term residents' worldwide assets within reach of Britain's 40% inheritance tax. Monaco, by contrast, levies no income, capital gains, or inheritance tax.

Reuben's spokesman confirmed the move but declined to comment further on why he made it. Simon Reuben has lived in Monaco for about 40 years after moving there for health reasons.

How big is Britain's billionaire exodus?

The departures have piled up since the non-dom regime was scrapped. More than a dozen billionaires worth a combined £120 billion have quit the U.K. in the two years since Labour took power, according to a new analysis of Bloomberg Billionaires Index data reported by the Evening Standard. That tally does not include Reuben.

Chancellor John Healey is now under pressure to raise revenue in his first budget on Oct. 28.

What is happening in California?

A similar drama is unfolding across the globe — with one key difference. Britain's exodus follows a tax regime already dismantled, while California's is playing out ahead of a tax voters have yet to approve.

Early voting opened this week on Proposition 40, a one-time 5% levy on the state's roughly 200 billionaires. Some of the state's wealthiest residents did not wait for the result: Google cofounders, venture capitalists, and a Hollywood director have already decamped for Miami, Las Vegas, Austin, and New York.

Six of the state's 214 billionaires were widely reported to have left before the initiative's Jan. 1, 2026, residency cutoff. The list includes:

• Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google cofounders
• Peter Thiel
• Don Hankey, car-loan magnate
• Travis Kalanick, former Uber CEO
• Steven Spielberg

By Fortune's Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez's most recent calculation, Page, Brin, Thiel and Kalanick alone would have owed about $29 billion — more than a fourth of the measure's projected $100 billion haul.

Who is fighting Proposition 40?

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) rallied for Prop 40 in San Francisco on Saturday. Sanders called it the most important ballot initiative in the country. Gov. Gavin Newsom is a critic, warning that billionaires can simply move to another state to avoid it.

Brin has since donated $102 million to Building a Better California, the group leading the opposition, according to campaign filings cited by Fortune's Sasha Rogelberg. He could owe roughly $13 billion if the tax passes.

Opponents have spent more than $187 million against about $32 million in support. Two billionaire-backed countermeasures, Propositions 41 and 42, would nullify Prop 40 if either draws more votes.

Is every billionaire bolting?

Not every billionaire is running away. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg Television he had not thought about the tax once and would pay whatever Silicon Valley levied.

"We chose to live in Silicon Valley and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it," Huang said. "I'm perfectly fine with it, it never crossed my mind once."

Britain has already shown what happens after the vote rather than before it. California's pre-exodus suggests the state may see the departures before the tax ever takes effect.