Gordon targets non-residents

ReportInvestor

Sunday Times

The Revenue has won a ruling that tightens up the number of days you can spend in the UK while maintaining non-resident status.

The Taxman can now count the days you arrive and leave, not just the number of nights you spend in the UK.

[A non-resident must spend no more than 90 days a year on average in the UK over a four-year period, and less than 183 days in any one tax year.]

In the court ruling, what had previously been counted as 79 days, mutiplied to 128 days under the new rules and so ensnared a Seychelles based businessman in the tax trap.

And it could be part of a wider picture of hitting non-resident retired people who are seen as an "easy target" to help plug Gordon's £3.5bn gap - according to the Sunday Times

"......Martin Rimmer of the Fry Group, another firm of accountants, said: “The upshot is that Revenue & Customs seems to be adopting a much stricter attitude towards endorsing expatriate status and the guidance provided by its own publications can no longer be relied upon. Saving UK tax by moving abroad is becoming much more difficult, and the taxman is likely to continue to pay greater attention to people wanting to adopt non-residence status.”

About 1m people have retired abroad, according to Lombard Street Research, and this could rise to 1.3m by 2025. Another 280,000 households own a second property abroad, and many intend to settle there when they retire. One in five of us — nearly 10m adults — is considering fleeing Britain’s rising taxes and cost of living......."

Hereward

ReportInvestor wrote:

About 1m people have retired abroad, according to Lombard Street Research, and this could rise to 1.3m by 2025. Another 280,000 households own a second property abroad, and many intend to settle there when they retire. One in five of us — nearly 10m adults — is considering fleeing Britain’s rising taxes and cost of living......."

But these people will come back to the UK as soon as something goes wrong or need any medical treatment and expect those of us who stay to pick up the tab, thus putting more pressure on HM Treasury for tax rises.

EdInvestor

Once you've been living overseas for 5 years you're not entitled to free NHS treatment (other than emergencies) unless you are returning to the UK to live.

Hereward

EdInvestor wrote:

Once you've been living overseas for 5 years you're not entitled to free NHS treatment (other than emergencies) unless you are returning to the UK to live.

Whilst this is true, if you continue to return to the UK for regular check ups and recieve your pension in a UK bank then you get the benefit of the NHS and can live in a forgien country as you still appear to be a UK resident, but are effectively living outside the country.

cheerfulcat

Shame that nothing is done about the non-dom rules which allow extremely wealthy foreigners to escape tax...Telegraph version of the same story.

seven-day-weekend

Hereward wrote:

Whilst this is true, if you continue to return to the UK for regular check ups and recieve your pension in a UK bank then you get the benefit of the NHS and can live in a forgien country as you still appear to be a UK resident, but are effectively living outside the country.

My husband receives his Teacher's pension into a UK bank account, and pays tax on it in the UK. We have been abroad for two years and are not allowed to access the British NHS other than for emergencies (and then only if we are in the UK at the time).

EdInvestor

Who's entitled to what: the regulations

ReportInvestor

The_Sunday_Times wrote:

About 1m people have retired abroad, according to Lombard Street Research, and this could rise to 1.3m by 2025. Another 280,000 households own a second property abroad, and many intend to settle there when they retire.

I think this 1.3m by 2025 could be an underestimate. Baby boomers coming up to retirement have grown up used to package holidays in Spain.

Reuters

"....A place in the sun has never been so popular, research shows, with the number of overseas properties owned by UK households almost trebling in the past decade.

An estimated 300,000 overseas houses have been snapped up by Britons -- a figure that has ballooned from just 102,000 in 1995, according to a study by business and financial adviser Grant Thornton.

It said there could be 1.3 million British nationals living in other countries by 2025, if a "gently rising" trend of those upping sticks to retire to sunnier climes continued....."

EdInvestor

The new rule seems to be aimed at people who do a 3-day week in the UK and spend the rest of their time in say, Monaco, and thus pay no tax at all.

Under the old rules, they could fly up on Sunday night in the private jet, arriving just after midnight, work through Mon, Tues and Wed and then depart after dinner on Wednesday nght.

This was counted as one day in the UK.

Now it counts as 3.Fair enough, IMHO.

inmypocketnottheirs

The title of this thread should read Gordon targets everybody

ReportInvestor

You could be right, imp.

But if he's targeting the people Ed mentions, then the Sunday Times has perhaps wasted a front page of the Money section on a tiny minority concern, while perhaps ignoring other issues that will have more impact on ordinary investors and those saving for their pension.

I think you will find this Times article on Wealth in Britain interesting, imp. Particularly the graph you get on the "Click here" bit.

Times - The poverty paradox — the less you have, the more you must pay

In spite of his many stealth taxes Gordon is still struggling to close the widening gap between rich & poor.

It looks like Middle England (the key marginal voters) has done proportionately better than the super rich, and way better than the poorest 10% under Gordon's tenure.