Working As A Non-Dom - Options

SiennaInLondon

Hello, I'm on a sabbatical from medical school and I'm in the pipeline for some very well paid tutoring jobs abroad. The salary is about 9k per month, and if I found a (legal!) way to avoid tax then I'd be saving a heck of a lot of money.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I avoid paying UK tax whilst I'm working in different countries?

It seems that bank accounts in Monaco or Switzerland all require a huge deposit I don't have. I have about 20k in an ISA I can transfer as a starting amount but not much more than that.

Would it be best to register as a company offshore?

The employer would be a private family but the tutoring company are British. Would that affect things?

SiennaInLondon

Oh and I play to be away anywhere between 10 to 22 months.

SiennaInLondon

Sorry the tutoring agency. They wouldn't be my company I don't think. I think they just recruit tutors for private families.

mrschaucer

Are you really a non-dom or or do you just plan to be non-tax-resident? There's a huge difference.
Have you looked at
https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income
especially with reference to split year treatment?

SiennaInLondon

Oh. I don't have homes abroad so I guess I would be the latter.

Would I still have to pay tax to the UK in this case?

SiennaInLondon

This is extremely confusing. I just read an article on the BBC (can't post the link as I'm a new user on here). It had the following:

"He says the Revenue may still try to tax you if you have too many fingers in too many pies back here in the UK."

This seems pretty subjective!

00ec25

SiennaInLondon wrote: »

This is extremely confusing. I just read an article on the BBC (can't post the link as I'm a new user on here). It had the following:

"He says the Revenue may still try to tax you if you have too many fingers in too many pies back here in the UK."

This seems pretty subjective!

please don't read articles written by journalists when all they are trying to do is pick a story to emphasise some inflammatory story, not actually explain all the relevant details

the HMRC link already posted is what you should focus on, did you read it?

let us make the following assumptions:
1. You are a UK passport holder/citizen
2. You have, until now lived ("resided") in the UK whilst working
3. You have therefore been "UK Tax resident" until now

4. You will leave the UK to live (reside) abroad. Unfortunately you plan to be abroad for between less than 1 year and less than 2 years.

5. you will be assessed for UK tax whilst resident in the UK BUT pay attention to the split year rule that if you are abroad for less than one complete tax year (ie April - April) all your income will be taxed in the UK

6. pay attention to the rules regarding how many days you can spend in the UK if you are away for more than one complete tax year or you will lose your claim to be non resident.

7. if you have to pay tax on your overseas earnings to the country in which you are working you can, if that country has a treaty with the UK, claim a credit for any tax you pay overseas against the tax liability in the UK. That may mean you have little or no extra tax to pay.


In summary, you cannot leave the UK for a short period and expect to escape UK tax on your earnings....

SiennaInLondon

Yes I did read it but missed the bit about April - April. Right ok that makes sense. So I'll only be able to avoid tax if I stay away until the start of the 2019 academic year (September 2019) i.e. two years out of medical school.

The other issue is the tutoring job is a travelling one: a few months here, a few months there (none in the UK). So there'll be no country in particular I'll be working in long enough to pay tax in. What would this mean?

Cook_County

Why would you pay no tax and social charges in the jurisdictions where you will be working?

SiennaInLondon

a) Because I think I'm going to be employed in the USA technically (need to check)
b) I won't be any jurisdiction for long.

SiennaInLondon

(Its a travelling tutor role)