Working Tax Credits spending part year in Spain

Pete101

My daughter is self-employed , pays NI by standing order and has an accountant do her books and pays tax. She sells things she has made or bought at Christmas Markets. She usually spends about 4 months in the UK with us, her parents, and the rest of the time in Spain where she rents a house. She has no partner. This year ( and this tax year ) she was out of the UK until July because she was having a baby ( born 01.03.13 ). Up to that point she had been receiving Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credit for her elder daughter ( born 7.11. 2004 ). She informed the Working Tax Credit people she could no longer work ( making her own goods ) sometime in late February. Her Credits were stopped immediately and she has to pay back £275. She received no Maternity Payments nor Maternity Allowance which she did not know she was eligible for. She has now applied for this retrospectively. This tax year she will spend about 70 days in the UK. Are there any experts out there who can advise whether she is entitled to anything? If not should she continue paying NI and Tax?

pmlindyloo

According to this:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/keep-up-to-date/changes-affect/abroad-temp.htm

she can claim child tax credits if she still has links with the UK i.e is paying NI contributions. However, it does not go into much detail so I would be inclined to telephone tax credits and ask.

Were you also enquiring about other benefits?

Icequeen99

Pete101 wrote: »

My daughter is self-employed , pays NI by standing order and has an accountant do her books and pays tax. She sells things she has made or bought at Christmas Markets. She usually spends about 4 months in the UK with us, her parents, and the rest of the time in Spain where she rents a house. She has no partner. This year ( and this tax year ) she was out of the UK until July because she was having a baby ( born 01.03.13 ). Up to that point she had been receiving Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credit for her elder daughter ( born 7.11. 2004 ). She informed the Working Tax Credit people she could no longer work ( making her own goods ) sometime in late February. Her Credits were stopped immediately and she has to pay back £275. She received no Maternity Payments nor Maternity Allowance which she did not know she was eligible for. She has now applied for this retrospectively. This tax year she will spend about 70 days in the UK. Are there any experts out there who can advise whether she is entitled to anything? If not should she continue paying NI and Tax?

She is going to need some professional advice.

From a working tax credits point of view - you must be present and ordinarily resident in the UK. There are rules which allow temporary absence, but that would only cover 8 weeks in Spain. Also, if her main home is in Spain, then there could be a query about whether she is ordinarily resident in the UK. She may be able to claim when she is back in the UK depending on if she is ordinarily resident.

The rules on CTC are much more complicated and depend on whether the UK or Spain would be judged to be the competent state. For CTC in addition to been present, ordinarily resident you need a right to reside. The rules quoted by the other posted are for situations where someone is working in the UK full time but their family live in another EU country or where someone is claiming a UK benefit such as SRP or contribution based ESA/JSA and lives in another EU country which wouldn't apply to your daughter. Again she needs advice, as it is far more complicated than she can get on a forum. It may be that she has to claim part of the year in the UK and part of the year in Spain.

She should also get some tax advice. If she is living in Spain, she may have an obligation to pay some tax in Spain and she may be able to claim the Spanish family benefits.

IQ