Rokos Capital Management founder Chris Rokos is preparing to move his tax residency from the UK to Greece, highlighting the growing competition between European jurisdictions for wealthy hedge fund executives, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report cites unnamed people familiar with the plans as revealing that Rokos, whose macro-focused hedge fund manages approximately $22bn, is also expected to establish an office in Athens as part of the move. The firm reportedly declined to comment.
The relocation represents a significant gain for Greece, which has developed a range of tax incentives aimed at attracting high-net-worth individuals and financial professionals. Under one of its regimes, qualifying foreign residents can pay a flat annual tax of €100,000 on overseas income.
For the UK, the departure is particularly notable given Rokos’s position among the country’s largest individual taxpayers. He ranked third in the latest Sunday Times list of the UK’s biggest taxpayers, with a reported tax bill of £330m.
His decision comes after the UK abolished its longstanding non-domiciled tax regime and introduced a series of measures affecting wealth, inheritance, capital gains and private equity. The changes have fuelled concerns among some wealthy investors and financial executives over the attractiveness of maintaining UK tax residency.
Rokos is one of the most prominent figures to emerge from London’s hedge fund industry. With an estimated net worth of around $4bn, he began his career at UBS, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse before co-founding Brevan Howard Asset Management with Alan Howard.
He subsequently launched Rokos Capital Management in 2015. The firm has grown into one of the world’s largest macro hedge funds, with about $22bn under management.
The UK has replaced the non-dom framework with a four-year Foreign Income and Gains regime that provides full relief from UK tax on qualifying overseas income and gains. But competing financial centres are offering longer-duration incentives.
Greece operates a 15-year regime for qualifying high-net-worth individuals, while Italy has a similar 15-year programme, although its annual flat tax on foreign-source income has recently increased to €300,000.
