Dodgy Tax/Benefit Claim?

credit_questions1

Hi All,

Bit of an unusual one here. My ex husband has lived abroad full time for 12 years in various countries but is now settled in Prague. He has two children with a Thai woman there. I know he files his self employed taxes in the UK.

So we are going through court proceedings at the moment to arrange formal visitation for our son and he refuses to admit in any paperwork or verbally that he lives abroad. He is using his brother's UK address as his own address and has been for 12 years and keeps telling everyone that this UK address is his permanent address. He did this before when we got divorced 5 years ago. He goes to great lengths in any written paperwork to state his home address as his brothers (even in more informal documents such as letters allowing him to travel with his son).

Out of curiosity - why would he do this? Would it be benefit related? He keeps asking me to lie in paperwork and state he is domiciled/permanently resident in the UK which I refuse to do as its not true and also makes the whole child proceedings look weird because most of the visitation plan revolves around the fact that he doesn't live in the UK.

Thanks in advance

FBaby

Are you sure he pays tax at all?

LadyDee

Might he have funds abroad? Whatever the reason, do not under any circumstances be persuaded to lie for him. In fact, I would be making it clear in any Court documents that you have reason to believe he is not actually domiciled in the UK.

credit_questions1

He's legally a temporary resident in Prague and cannot claim permanent residency there until he has lived there for a number of years continuously. He states that his accounts and earnings are "booked in the UK" as are his tax payments. He has stated that he is a "British citizen, British taxpayer with only a British permanent address". However, he has not physically lived in the UK for 12 years - even temporarily.

He gets really angry with me when I tell him I am stating that he lives abroad full-time/permanently which is why I suspect he has been dishonest somewhere - be it tax or benefits or both.

Darksparkle

Normal with tax you'd see it the other way about to be honest, people claiming to not be uk resident when they are. Unless he's trying to avoid taxes in Czech Republic but I know nothing about that.

Was he born in the UK? Are his parents from UK? If so then UK is likely his domicile even if not resident here.

credit_questions1

Yes, he was born in the UK and his parents were too. Do you have to state to HMRC that you live abroad full time? If he didn't then what would that really mean? It's just so odd that he is so aggressively determined to let nobody official know that he is anything but living permanently at his brother's address when the truth is far from that.

Darksparkle

Providing he's declaring all his UK income to HMRC then I don't see that he's doing anything wrong for UK tax purposes.

Mojisola

credit_questions1 wrote: »

So we are going through court proceedings at the moment to arrange formal visitation for our son and he refuses to admit in any paperwork or verbally that he lives abroad.

He is using his brother's UK address as his own address and has been for 12 years and keeps telling everyone that this UK address is his permanent address.

How can the court make sensible judgments about a child visiting his father when the judge doesn't know that the father lives abroad?

Mojisola

credit_questions1 wrote: »

He's asking me to lie for him

You aren’t going to, are you?

credit_questions1

Mojisola wrote: »

You aren’t going to, are you?

Not a chance in hell!

Mojisola

credit_questions1 wrote: »

He goes to great lengths in any written paperwork to state his home address as his brothers (even in more informal documents such as letters allowing him to travel with his son).

Were these letters you've given him?