Offshore banking, should I, could I ?

raymate

Hello,

New to this forum and just wanted some advice.

Currently in the UK, but moving to Canada in the not to distant future.

When I move it would be nice to have an account that I could access from the UK and Canada as I may be renting out my current UK property and would of course want to be able to collect any income from this and pay the TAX required.

It seems I cant have/hold a UK account if I don't technically live in the UK so I will need to close them when I leave which is fine. As I have found out it is such a pain to send money from the UK to Canada.

Would in my situation an offshore Jersey account be an answer?

Not sure if it would.

I don't have stacks of money I'm just a normal person, have bond and a little bit of savings and that's it, do you need to be rich to have one?

Of course I have no problem with paying any sort of TAX etc. I dont want to evade the law in anyway I want it all to be legal. To me if you say offshore it bring TAX evaders to mind, now I'm even thinking about this makes me nervous.

Is is easy to open an Account, anyone done it or can recommend a bank?

Thanks

R

raymate

Al_Mac wrote: »

If you have a friend who told you this, will they mind if you tell them they don't have a clue. You can have a UK domiciled account whilst living abroad.

Would not call them a friend, but it was my local Abbey branch, I have had an account with them for 35 years and they said if I'm out of the country for more than six months I cant have an account with them.

He said if you can live six month in the UK then Canada and then the UK again I could. Which of course is rather stupid.

What bank should I be talking to?

R

digerati

raymate wrote: »

... Would not call them a friend, but it was my local Abbey branch, I have had an account with them for 35 years and they said if I'm out of the country for more than six months I cant have an account with them.

I am neither resident nor domiciled in the UK yet I have an account with Abbey and loads of other UK banks and banks and financial institutions. Most likely you had an Abbey staff member that didn't check the account brochures. It's true that certain types of Abbey accounts are only available to UK residents, but many other high interest rate accounts are available to non-residents on a gross basis.

As to the argument of offshore versus UK bank accounts - I'd stick with UK ones as they are covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Also gross interest rates are usually higher with UK banks compared to offshore branches (of those same banks).

Before departing for Canada you would be well advised to contact your main UK banks and ask for a referral to their expat department. We got loads of free advice on how to best structure our UK assets to minimize or legally avoid paying UK taxes. Saved us thousands of pounds back in the 80s and 90s when a thousand was still a large sum of money.

raymate wrote: »

... I don't have stacks of money I'm just a normal person, have bond and a little bit of savings and that's it, do you need to be rich to have one?.

Most offshore bank accounts can be opened with a small amount (few thousand pounds). Private banks are the exception and often require a referral and large (multi-million pound) deposit, however they do provide specialized services and personal banking. Coutts Bank provide such services in the UK, but like most private banks shun publicity.

raymate

thank you, this is good news and i'm happy that i can keep uk accounts.

Cook_County

You will probably save tax in the UK by moving the money offshore but the interest & rent would be taxable in Canada in any case and so globally you wouldn't save much because Canada will give credit for the UK tax on your Canadian tax returns.

digerati should of course have all savings offshore to avoid any UK tax on interest income because s/he is not domiciled within the UK. The Isle of Man has an investor protection scheme if this is a concern.