Economy
David Reuben Leaves London for Monaco as California Billionaire Tax Vote Opens
By Bear Creek Staff, . Bear Creek Capital Network.
David Reuben, the 88-year-old property magnate whom Bloomberg's Billionaires Index values at $13.1 billion, left his Holland Park home in London for Monaco this summer, a spokesman for the Reuben brothers confirmed to Fortune, which first attributed the report to The Times. His brother Simon has lived in Monaco for roughly four decades, having relocated there for health reasons.
The move follows Britain's abolition of its non-domicile tax status, a regime that for more than two centuries allowed wealthy residents with permanent homes abroad to pay UK tax only on income earned or brought into the country. The replacement, a residence-based system, took effect April 6, 2025, and extended Britain's 40 percent inheritance tax to long-term settlers' worldwide assets. Monaco has no income tax, no capital gains tax and no inheritance tax. The two brothers are worth close to £28 billion between them.
Reuben is not alone. The report said more than a dozen billionaires with a combined worth of roughly £120 billion have left the UK in the two years since Labour took power, citing an analysis of Bloomberg Billionaires Index data published by the Evening Standard. That count does not include Reuben. Chancellor John Healey faces his first budget on October 28 under pressure to replace the lost revenue.
The parallel story is unfolding in California. Early voting has opened on Proposition 40, a one-time 5 percent levy targeting the state's roughly 200 billionaires, with a projected haul of $100 billion. Senators Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna held a rally in San Francisco in support, with Sanders describing it as the most consequential ballot initiative in the country. Governor Gavin Newsom has opposed the measure, arguing that billionaires can simply establish residency elsewhere to avoid it.
California already has data on that argument. The same report said six of the state's 214 billionaires left before the initiative's January 1, 2026 residency cutoff, among them Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, Don Hankey, Travis Kalanick, and Steven Spielberg. Fortune calculated that Page, Brin, Thiel, and Kalanick alone would have owed roughly $29 billion under the measure, more than a quarter of the total projected revenue.
Opposition spending has been heavy. The same report said Brin donated $102 million to Building a Better California, the leading opposition group, according to campaign filings, and could owe around $13 billion if the measure passes. Opponents have spent more than $187 million fighting the measure, compared with roughly $32 million spent in support. Two billionaire-backed countermeasures, Propositions 41 and 42, would nullify Proposition 40 if either draws more votes.
Not every billionaire is positioning to leave. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg Television he had not considered the tax at all. "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."
The Reuben departure illustrates the core tension in both jurisdictions: the revenue a wealth tax promises depends on the assumption that its targets stay put. Britain's experience suggests that assumption deserves scrutiny. The UK abolished its non-dom regime before measuring the behavioral response at scale, and the departures now being counted came faster than the tax receipts that were supposed to replace them. California voters are making a similar bet, with the added complication that moving to Nevada or Florida is considerably easier than moving to Monaco. What remains unknown is how many of the billionaires still in California would follow the early movers if Proposition 40 passes, and whether the remaining tax base would cover the gap.
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