Self Employed Vs Limited Company & non resident status

curatesegg

Hi

I have recently started a job in private security. The job is permanently based in a very hot country in the gulf. I am a 'consultant' and definitely not an employee. I'm paid $200,000 a year.

For the previous five months I've been working in a North African country as a consultant (2 weeks in country, two weeks in the UK) and I chose to go the route of limited company as opposed to self employed due to the salary / dividend options to ensure I extracted less than the threshold £38,000 so as to not pay any more than the 21% corporation tax.

For my new job I have set up a $US business account for my limited business and will be paid monthly in $US. However I'm still left paying 21% corporation tax on a salary of $200,000 which works out as £28,770 at current exchange rates. That's a lot of money to be giving to the tax man. Bearing in mind that I will be in back to the UK for two or three weeks every 9 weeks I wonder if I should register as non resident (I'm married and my wife rents the house in the UK from the Army); but I'm concerned I may have missed the boat since I've been in the UK everyday since the start of this tax year in April and only left the country on June 8th 2010 which equals about 68 days in the UK so far this year.

My accountant doesn't have any experience in this field and advises that I should stay with my limited company and pay the 21% corporation tax....I'm not so sure and I'm not convince he's experienced enough or giving me the best advice.

Any advice on this matter will be hugely appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

olivetti

Get a better accountant. Seriously.

Cook_County

You are still UK resident as is the company. The company may have a PE in one or more country so may require payments of tax, observance of local laws, taxes, levies, filing obligations etc.

You need decent international advice.