Private equity firm Terra Firma’s chief executive, Guy Hands, has attacked the government’s decision to tax foreign workers and change capital gains tax.

In the company’s annual review Hands commented: “We are concerned by the recent changes to the UK tax laws. The potential impact of these changes on Terra Firma and other private equity firms’ business is significant.”

His views, shared by others in the industry, come as no surprise as Terra Firma employs staff from some 20 countries. Foreigners, who have lived in the UK for more than seven out of the past ten years, will now have to pay an annual £30,000 tax in addition to any tax on UK income and gains on foreign income remitted to the UK.

Not everyone shares the opinion of Hands though, in his web blog, economist Professor Willem Buiter said of the reaction to the charge: “The explosion of indignation that greeted this proposal was deafening and largely bereft of logic other than the financial self-interest of those non-doms who would be adversely affected.”