tax free redundancy and working abroad

BFM

first time poster, but spent quite a lot of time lurking of late.

i know the standard tax free amount is 30k.

I worked in the united states for 6 of my 13 years with my current employer.

in my final notification letter there was a figure of appro 20k that was quoted as being tax free due to my having worked abroad.

i queried this with my HR contact who explained that this was incremental as opposed to instead of the standard 30k but the hr folks i've dealt with have previous of getting explicit questions wrong.

can anyone here clarify if this is truely incremental?

if it is I'll gladly take it, but dont really understand the logic of why i should get this when folks who paid uk tax for those 6 years wouldn't

thanks

getmore4less

Never heard of that,

ASk HR for th erelevent references to the HMRC manuals.

Also try HMRC web, the search usualy pulls up something if it there or give them a call.

You don't want a heafty tax bill


If you find out more info can you post the results please.

BFM

not 100% sure, but found this on the HMRC website which seems to suggest that HR were right and this would be incremental to the standard £30k - its called foreign service reduction

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM13985.htm

I think its absurd that I should get a tax break compared to UK employees/taxpayers in the same situation , but happy to take it...