Can you recommend a really good accountant for domicile and remittance issues?

jumperabv3

I spent all day yesterday getting to Central London just to speak to my accountant and find out he needs more time to review what I showed him ... I mean he wasn't aware of the entire concept by heart, so I'm not upset or anything but just want to speak to someone who is an expert and does know all rules by heart or had an experience of a case like mine before (my accountant didn't).

There are too many bad ones online, so this is why I am using the forum to ask this.

Basically, I am a non UK domiciled and I had money that I had with me BEFORE I became a UK resident, however I did use this money with some offshore companies - and then took it back to myself - now I found a really nice property to buy in London, but in order to buy it I need to bring funds into the UK - and I don't wanna do any mistakes here or fall into tax "traps" because this property will cost me almost all my life savings (£250k) and it's quite hard to make such a step before consulting with someone extremely professional regarding this matter to avoid any tax issues later on.

So basically I am looking for someone who is an expert in this field of domicile, remittance to the UK, using funds in the UK, etc. I really wanna make this process nice and easy, but I am looking for someone who is an extremely expert in this field - can you please recommend of anyone that can be helpful for me with this matter please? I cannot rely on the ones online because they can just end up like my accountant's firm, not providing me answers because they don't know all the rules off by heart or had no experience with it..... I am willing to pay nicely for it of course! I know the experts are very busy and their time is valuable.

Many thanks!

ceh209

I could recommend someone, but then I do work for them...

I would look towards the bigger firms, some of them will have international departments who will know all about this sort of thing.

You can appoint them just for some advisory work rather than your ongoing compliance if you prefer - as the bigger the firm the higher the fees as I'm sure you know!

jumperabv3

ceh209 wrote: »

I could recommend someone, but then I do work for them...

I would look towards the bigger firms, some of them will have international departments who will know all about this sort of thing.

You can appoint them just for some advisory work rather than your ongoing compliance if you prefer - as the bigger the firm the higher the fees as I'm sure you know!

How can I contact you or your firm please?

Pennywise

But, sadly, even some of the bigger firms don't come up to standard. In a previous job, we had some (what we thought) were fairly basic questions about setting up a foreign subsidiary and had consultations with both PWC and PKF but the so-called "experts" we met with (tax managers as per their business cards) still couldn't give us any more information than we had already worked out ourselves from our own research and went away saying they'd send us a report. In both cases, the said report arrived with nothing but generalities and very little in the way of answers to questions we had posed. It took a lot of chasing and even complaints to actually get any sensible "advice" from either.

jumperabv3

Pennywise wrote: »

But, sadly, even some of the bigger firms don't come up to standard. In a previous job, we had some (what we thought) were fairly basic questions about setting up a foreign subsidiary and had consultations with both PWC and PKF but the so-called "experts" we met with (tax managers as per their business cards) still couldn't give us any more information than we had already worked out ourselves from our own research and went away saying they'd send us a report. In both cases, the said report arrived with nothing but generalities and very little in the way of answers to questions we had posed. It took a lot of chasing and even complaints to actually get any sensible "advice" from either.

So what's the best thing to do in such case?

Pennywise

jumperabv3 wrote: »

So what's the best thing to do in such case?

You'll have to kiss a few frogs to find a prince. All you can do is keep trying to find someone who seems to understand your particular issues. All I'm saying is don't assume that the big firms will be any better. They "may" have experts within the group but if the expert you need is based in the Birmingham office and you go to the Cardiff office, you're going to be fobbed off initially with another "all rounder" who can do little more than fact find and get back to you (which is presumably what your own accountant has done!).

UK tax is complex enough with all the different kinds, i.e. IT, CT, PAYE, VAT, CGT, IHT, Stamp Duty, etc., so even a person claiming to be a UK tax expert is probably lying as it's impossible to know everything about all UK tax. That's why you find there are CGT experts, IHT experts, etc. Add international issues into the mix and it's a whole new dimension.

I understand how you feel. We travelled 400 miles to PKF's Aberdeen office to see a so-called specialist in international oil company taxation when we wanted to set up a satellite office and depot in Houston, Texas, only to find he'd never dealt with US companies before as all his dealings were with Norway etc. Doh! We weren't happy bunnies. He'd been recommended by the local office of PKF, so we'd assumed he'd know his stuff.

chrismac1

I agree with Pennywise. I have one non-dom on my books, in previous jobs before setting up my firm I've set up offices in Bulgaria and dealt with contracts in USA, Aus, Germany, Ukraine, FSU, etc. But I still have to call my tax expert helpline on specific matters to do with my non-dom, who gets tax advice from his USA-based accountant.

tyllwyd

It is a bit of a long shot, but coming at it from a different angle, if you can find any publications/articles dealing with the type of tax issues you are interested in - or a section of a large accountancy looseleaf book - you might be able to track down and contact the author.

jumperabv3

Thank you for your help, it's very useful information here.

FTBFun

Hmmm, this is actually my area. PM me if you like.