Working all over world, out of Uk about 260-300 days a year

nikkiandmidgets

My husband is a service engineer and works worldwide. lat year his days away were just over 300, some in Europe but less tyan 100 in total including his time at home. This year will be pretty similar. He works in shipyards, on boats, and occassionally on platforms - can he claim any tax back? Does he have to sign hmself out of UK to do this? He was born and brought up in SA, arrived in UK about 4 years ago, and has a Dutch passport and sofie number. He has always paid UK tax while working but I think his work do some kind of tax relief (Probably for their benefit) cos his payslip always has a daily taxable allowance, and a daily tax free allowance. His company is currently UK based (I think they may be shutting down UK office in future) and his bank acct is too.

He also has a chance of a month on, month off job working on a drillshp, initially based in Korea. He is not sure whether to take it. It is a drop in salary but he will be home more - can he claim tax back ont his job if he ensures he is out of UK for more than he is home? I want him to take the job where he will be home more but he is not keen on taking a salary drop as he sees it as taking a step back so any advice would be appreciated as me and my daughters would like my husband out of the unpredictable shifts of a service engneer. Also, any advice on companies that can assist with claims for refunds or his tax circumstances would be appreciated as I dont know what to look under, or if the companies are all reputable\genuine!

Bean_Counter

I'm afraid this is not my area of expertise, but as far as I know, to be exempt from UK tax on his income, he needs to be out of the UK on the first day of the tax year (6 April) and the last day (5 April). As he has been in the UK less than 6 months in the meantime, he should be entitled to some or all of his tax back.

This is worth checking out further, with the end of the tax year being next week.

Hopefully someone else will post. If not, maybe accountant at husband's work will know as they are likely to be dealing with this stuff on a regular basis, I would have thought.

Cook_County

As he is not domiciled in the UK you could arrange things rather better by having him employed from a non-UK entity for non-UK duties.

If so he would only pay UK tax on earnings remitted to the UK. He would however owe tax in each country he worked.

MXW

Residency is a very complicated matter, I would suggest you ring the HMRC help line for advice.

nikkiandmidgets

My husband says he will take the 28 on\28 off job if we relocate out of Europe - He is suggesting Singapore\Thailand - anyone know a site which lists tax rates for countries round the world?