This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

For years, the United Kingdom had a controversial tax status — the “non-dom,” short for “non-domiciled” — which meant a qualifying resident could pay a fee to nominate another country as their permanent home to avoid U.K. tax on worldwide income. In short, you could live in the U.K., but your home for tax purposes was overseas.

It's a different concept than how taxes are handled in the U.S., where citizens are taxed on income wherever it’s earned.

This has long been an emotive subject in the U.K. There was uproar in 2022 when it emerged the wife of the then-Finance Minister, Akshata Murty, was one of 74,000 non-doms.

Despite having three homes in the U.K., she was not resident in the U.K. for tax purposes. This enabled her to avoid U.K. taxes on millions of dollars of dividends from her father's Indian software company, Infosys. She gave up her non-dom status after the outcry.

Both major parties had promised reforms, and the current Finance Minister Rachel Reeves outlined her plans to abolish the non-dom status last year. To cheers in the House of Commons she declared: "I have always said that if you make Britain your home, you should pay your taxes here too."

The government said it wanted to address unfairness in the system and raise money for services, but it's position did soften: Non-doms now have longer than originally planned — four years in fact — to bring their money onshore tax-free. After that period, taxes kick in on worldwide income.

The change came after critics said wealthy people would leave the U.K. One report found the number of departures had risen, but those figures have been disputed.

Chris Ball advises high-net-worth individuals at Hoxton Wealth and said his clients are looking at countries with more sympathetic tax policies.

"I think a lot of people that this applies to are mobile, and they have other options so we're seeing people go to the Middle East, Dubai. We're also seeing people look at Italy," he said.

The U.S. is also an attractive option, Ball said: "I think this administration is very pro-people with money residing in the U.S. Our view is they're trying to make it easier to come over and gain residence, and gain citizenship."

One person who says she will leave the U.K. is Magda Wierzycka, founder of financial services firm Sygnia. She currently splits her time between Cape Town and London.

"You need people, entrepreneurs, people setting up companies to come into the U.K. and pay their share of tax but do so in such a manner that does not discourage wealthy people from coming," she said.

Meanwhile, Julia Davies, an angel investor and co-founder of a group called Patriotic Millionaires UK, supports the change, arguing that wealthy people should not be able to avoid taxes.

"We’ve been sold what I would say is a fairy story of trickle-down wealth, as in if there are some people that are doing incredibly well in the U.K., it’s going to be good for everyone. But it hasn’t turned out that way,” she said.

While some wealthy people might leave, others could be attracted by that four-year tax break, according to Jo Bateson, a tax lawyer at Mercer and Hole.

"The new regime is really attractive for a typical entrepreneurial client,” she said. “Somebody who doesn't necessarily need to work from their business so could work anywhere in the world. The U.K. is still a good place to be."

Bateson added it could also tempt Brits living abroad to move back home.

"If I’m a Brit who's gone overseas with work, maybe living in America for 10 years, I can now come back to the U.K. and I can get the first four years under this regime," she noted.

So while some people will feel they're losing out, it may mean home sweet home for some homesick returnees.