non resident or off shore account??

mickra7851

Thanks guys I am confused but I think the main thing is not to be in the UK for more then 90 days that seems very clear. I appreciate your time.

Mick

TM1976

mickra7851 wrote: »

Thanks guys I am confused but I think the main thing is not to be in the UK for more then 90 days that seems very clear. I appreciate your time.

Mick

It's true that you can't become non-resident without being out of the country for 90 days but it's not enough on it's own so you couldn't claim non-residency.

The only way you could do this is to move your permanent home somewhere other than the UK.

TM1976

I'm not sure if this explains it any better but the answer is in your post here.

mickra7851 wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply after speaking to the guys here most Brits either live abroad or they are non doms. Using the less then 90 day rule. Not Expats.

Domicile and residence aren't the same thing. Where you are domiciled is determined by you family connections, usually your father's nationality and has nothing to do with the 90 day rule. Non-doms only pay tax on their income paid back to the UK so a non-dom could "leave" their income offshore and avoid UK tax. Thing is you could spend your whole lift outside the UK and still be UK domiciled as it's generally linked to your parents' nationality.

You mention that many Brits live abroad - these can claim residence elsewhere and avoid UK tax if they comply with the 90 day rule.
But in your case if your family home remains in the UK so you still won't be able to claim non-residence even if you spend less than 90 days in the UK - your family need to relocate too.

mickra7851

TM1976 thanks for the reply I guess I am confused I have a lot of collegues who own houses and are non residents and dont pay tax. I believe you can still own one house and claim non res as long as you adhere to the less then 90 days. Maybe it was my incorrect naming od Non Dom and Non res me and Lord Ashcroft may have made the same mistake lol. I currently have a friend who is trying to get a mortgage in the UK whilst been a non res???

Mick

TM1976

mickra7851 wrote: »

TM1976 thanks for the reply I guess I am confused I have a lot of collegues who own houses and are non residents and dont pay tax. I believe you can still own one house and claim non res as long as you adhere to the less then 90 days. Maybe it was my incorrect naming od Non Dom and Non res me and Lord Ashcroft may have made the same mistake lol. I currently have a friend who is trying to get a mortgage in the UK whilst been a non res???

Mick

This is quite complicated, as other posters have stated there is no statutory test of residence in UK tax - what this means is there isn't a list of criterea that you can fulfill to mean that you are non-resident. If the tax man looked into this he would try to determine whether you has genuinely cut ties with the UK, it's possible to do this whilst still owning a property in the UK, especially if it's an investment property. What I thought was the bid stumbling block was that you said your family is in the UK, if your spouse/kids reside in the UK it's difficult to say that you have genuinely given up residence - but as I said this isn't a statutory test so it's generally based on their judgement so their could be other factors.

Keep in mind too if you you know people who aren't paying tax it doesn't mean they are necessarily on the right side of the law. Paying your income into an offshore account historically may have meant the UK tax authorities didn't know about your overseas income, however since the EU savings directive came into force offshore banks in all locations you would actually want to bank in have to report your account details to your home EU country.

mickra7851

Thanks again. I will have to see what the next move is but I take your point my collegues may not be on the right side of the law.

Mick

gld73

Owning a house in the UK doesn't automatically stop you claiming non-resident status. I live and work abroad, and get back to the UK for about 40 days/year, and after much ripping-out-of-hair and frustrations with HMRC, finally got tax-free status at the end of Dec, a year after moving abroad. I still have a house in the UK, and still pay my bills, council tax etc, on it, but I don't live there, I just visit a couple of times a year. I also still have my savings accounts in the UK, so if they were of a level which earned me a decent amount of interest (I wish!), I would be paying tax on them. I'm on a low salary working for a charity in developing countries, and I was surprised at how hard it was for me to convince HMRC of my status, but I think they're really clamping down on people claiming to be non-resident.

I think one of the main points coming out of the ruling over the guy who spent less than 90 days/yr in the UK, but who HMRC decided still had to pay tax, was the extent a person has ties with the UK. If you're married with kids, then even though you yourself may spend less than 90 days/yr in the UK, your dependants may be fully resident and making full use of services paid for by tax payers (using schools, hospitals, roads, etc). I think it'll be harder to justify being non-resident and not paying tax if HMRC thinks your links to the UK are binding like that. I'm single with no dependants, so I assume that counted in my favour, as I'm not seen as trying to get out of paying tax whilst still get the benefits of the tax system.

Anyway, if you do try for non-resident status, don't expect it to be granted easily..!

Cook_County

HMRC do not set the rules. This remains up to parliament and the courts. The courts have all recently looked for a clean break from the UK and being able to demonstrate settling somewhere else is part of that required fact pattern.

Hopefully the next government will fix these long out of date set of rules.

ballsonyournose

I think alot of what's posted is crap to be honest.

Im in the same boat, perhaps literally, and for the past four years classed as Seafarers' Earnings Deduction. I have to give the total amount, and the names of the ships in the ‘Additional information’ box.

The rules are quite complicated, and i dont think they apply if you are on a rig in uk waters. You have to satisfy various rules, essentially be out of the uk more than in.

I have property in the uk, isas etc. You dont have to "sever all ties" to the uk, thats a load.

For me, my employer takes 40% to the taxman every month, and i get a lovely check back from HMRC at the end of the year I know alot of people who use https://www.seatax.ltd.uk, i dont personally, use a local outfit in Edinburgh. Its worth while to get an accountant to do this, costs me £150 per return.

queen_of_string

It seems to matter where the income originates too. I am the sole director of a UK company whilst being non resident. I only spend about 4 weeks in the UK, but as all my income originates in the UK, I am informed that all my earnings will be taxed just the same as if I lived there and used services. It sucks.