The first question that Rufus had for me when I got home on the evening of 9 October — well after, 'what time do you call this, the park's locked and what's happening about my walk' — was 'when are we leaving the country?'

This rather took me aback and it transpired that he was very upset by the Chancellor's new rules for those not domiciled in the UK.

As the son (surely 'pup'? Ed) of a Saluki and an Alsatian, he has always considered himself one of the nation's 115,000 resident 'non-doms', his only problem is that as we do not know which was the mother and which the father there is considerable doubt about where he actually is domiciled; presumably either Saudi Arabia or Germany.

He still believes that one of his forbears was the favoured Saluki of a rich Saudi prince and that it's only a matter of time before he receives his rightful inheritance, at which time he intends to give up his current fondness for corned beef and settle down to his well-earned (well, not exactly earned) twilight years which he will spend reclining on a large silk cushion being spoon fed caviar by a dusky middle-eastern maiden.

Hang on a second! I think that damn dog has stolen my retirement plans.

Anyway, there he was, having already set himself up with a series of offshore accounts awaiting only the deposit of a large inheritance that he could shunt around, thus ensuring that only capital rather than income was remitted to the UK, when Mr Darling puts the kibosh on his plans.

As we have owned him (oh alright; as he has been living with us) for six years this month, and he must have been at least a year old when we got him from the rescue home (Rufus believes he fell out of a limousine with diplomatic plates somewhere in Belgravia), it seems highly likely that he has already been resident in the UK for seven years.

Consequently, if he wishes to claim the remittance basis, it is going to cost him £30,000 p.a. Not a happy bunny, sorry puppy.

Later, Rufus decided that he might have been a little hasty with his plans for emigration. When he started to consider the size of his anticipated inheritance and the income (non-remittable of course) that it was likely to produce, he decided that £30,000 might not be too high a price to pay for living in a reasonably democratic country where clean water comes out of the taps, he can buy corned beef 24/7 and things pretty much 'work'.

The judicial review case of Mohamed Al Fayed and Others v Inland Revenue disclosed that certain non-domiciled individuals were apparently happy to pay the Inland Revenue £240,000 p.a. as their UK tax liabilities.

On that basis, £30,000 p.a. and the possibility of still being able to plan remittances doesn't seem like a bad deal. Being of Middle Eastern origin himself, Rufus wonders if this new charge shouldn't be known as the 'Al Fayed tax'?

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