Saving in UK from abroad possible?

MovingtoBarc

Hi I'm moving to Barcelona to work for a few years, but looking to put about 15,000 into a savings account with the hope that it might make some interest? Am I allowed to put it in a NISA - as I'm not a UK tax payer? Would this be my best bet? Don't want to tie it up for too long, but could do a year or 2.

Thanks

bryanb

Dragonfli wrote: »

Would they tax £60 total UK income?

As I said it's deducted automatically unless you sign R85.

xylophone

Hi I'm moving to Barcelona

You can open one while you are resident but see

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/faqs.htm

"Q. What happens if I go abroad?
A. You can only subscribe to an ISA if you are resident in the UK for tax purposes (ask your Tax Office if you are in any doubt about this).

Crown employees, such as diplomats or members of the armed forces, who are working overseas and paid by the government are eligible to subscribe to an ISA. Their spouses or civil partners can also subscribe to an ISA.

If you open an ISA in the UK and then go abroad, you cannot continue putting money into the ISA (unless you are a Crown employee working overseas or the spouse or civil partner of a Crown employee working overseas) after you cease to be UK resident. However, you can keep your ISA and you will still get tax relief on investments held in the ISA. When you return and become UK resident again, you can start putting money in again (subject to the normal annual limits)."

bowlhead99

bryanb wrote: »

If you opened a UK savings account you would become a taxpayer automatically as tax is deducted from savings accounts, unless you are eligible to sign R85.

Which you would sign, because avoiding paying tax and then claiming it back is the purpose of the form. If you didn't sign it you would pay the tax but not actually have owed the tax and then you'd need to ask HMRC for it back.

MovingtoBarc wrote: »

Hi I'm moving to Barcelona to work for a few years, but looking to put about 15,000 into a savings account with the hope that it might make some interest? Am I allowed to put it in a NISA - as I'm not a UK tax payer? Would this be my best bet? Don't want to tie it up for too long, but could do a year or 2.

Thanks

If you haven't lost your uk residence yet then yes you can open an ISA while you are still here, and put the full £15k in it, even if you don't stick around the rest of this tax year. You might need to pay Spanish tax the interest received if the Spanish authorities don't recognise UK ISAs as exempt from Spanish income tax, in which case it would have rather limited value because interest on £15k in a normal non ISA UK savings account is not going to get you over your uk annual income allowance anyway.

The advantage would potentially just be that in your first year back in the UK wouldn't need to use up all your ISA allowance to wrap up the £15k. As you've said you don't want to tie it up for more than a year or two it doesn't sound like you'd make use of that advantage anyway.

So you might be just as well seeking a non ISA home for the £15k, because there's more choice.

colsten

bowlhead99 wrote: »

As mentioned further up the thread, these types of accounts are not for non-residents.

You are splitting hairs. Anyone able to prove they have a UK address can apply for a current account with any of the UK current account providers today, move abroad tomorrow, and keep their UK current accounts if they move to "friendly" countries such as France.

Really no different to someone being able to prove they have a UK address and already live 25 miles [STRIKE]down the road[/STRIKE] across the channel.

You do not need to prove that you are a UK resident for tax purposes to be eligible for any UK current account.

colsten

Dragonfli wrote: »

I can't find on the HSBC saver that I need to be a UK resident.... just have a bank account. I'll hvae a look at that one.

The pre-req for the HSBC regular saver is an HSBC current account. As you already have one, you should be able to open it online striaght away.

Dragonfli wrote: »

Would they tax £60 total UK income?

HSBC, like any other bank, will automatically withhold 20% of any interest paid, unless you qualify for an R85.

bowlhead99

colsten wrote: »

You are splitting hairs

No, I'm reading from the account opening forms for major banks' current accounts. The bit that I quoted [but which you stripped out of your quote of me] said you need to be an adult UK resident.

High interest current accounts are the most popular way (and pretty much the only way) for people on this board to earn interest significantly in excess of the 1% that the OP gets on his Euros where he lives.

An adult UK resident is the type of customer they are willing to offer such accounts to, because it is only worth their marketing spend on promotional market-beating interest rates to acquire customers to whom they can easily sell other products. And customers that can be easily identified, in pursuit of AML compliance. And customers for whom they are unlikely to have to do any foreign tax reporting. And customers who are relatively easier to correspond with, or chase / track down if the account or other related product is in default.

Once you're their customer, you are quite right that they may allow you to keep the account when you move to a friendly overseas country (or 25 miles down the road as you put it). Because they might think that you are worth it to them and they want to keep their market share up. But I would say it is you who is 'splitting hairs' if the T&C for opening the account is "must be a UK resident" and you want to interpret that as "well, you don't actually need to be a UK resident you just need to be in a position to be able to mislead them that you reside in the UK".

If they explicitly say you can't have the account if you don't live in the UK, you should not lie to get the account (e.g. by producing some 'proof' of you living in the UK which is just paperwork from another bank). To tell a financial institution that you are resident in the UK is a stupid thing to do if you are trying to make it clear to the UK tax authorities that you are absolutely NOT resident in the UK and absolutely do not want to pay income taxes and gains taxes and inheritance taxes etc etc over the next years, and you want HRMC to accept that completely without query and not start asking for a list of days you were present at your home in the UK etc.

Logically if you're not a UK tax resident, you would not want a UK bank building up a paper trail, that you are signing off on in the course of the application process, that suggests that you are in fact a resident in the UK. Whether they are using a layman's definition of resident (i.e. residing somewhere) or going into the ins and outs of the statutory residence test for UK tax purposes, is a moot point: a person who is not a UK taxpayer by reason of not being a UK resident would, IMHO, not want to suggest that they were resident when they were in fact not.

colsten

bowlhead99 wrote: »

If they explicitly say you can't have the account if you don't live in the UK, you should not lie to get the account

But they don't say that, do they. They say you need to be a UK resident to apply. I have read more UK current account T&Cs than many others have had hot meals, and none of them state that you cannot hold a current account if you are no longer a UK resident.

Life is too short to respond to all your other reasons as to why somebody not permanently living in the UK should not apply for a UK interest bearing current account.

atush

Another thought would be to invest the money monthly from your UK bank acct into an investment trust savings plan. i opened a few while non resident.

And I have both a UK and a French HSBC acct (based in rennes but they have offices in other cities) that are linked online.

bowlhead99

colsten wrote: »

But they don't say that, do they. They say you need to be a UK resident to apply.

Absolutely, the text was quoted from an application form, because if you don't have one of these accounts, the way to get one, is to apply.

I do agree though, life's too short :beer: