Ex Pat - How do HMRC know how long out of country?

dave_ave

How do the HMRC know how long you are out of the country for tax purposes? Do they have access to the Border Agency to see arrivals and departures using passport information? Anyone in the know?

Pennywise

Like everything else re UK tax, it's "self" assessment and based on taxpayers honestly filling in tax returns etc.

Either randomly, or upon cross-checking other information, they may open an enquiry, and in that case, they'll ask for proof of the information you've given them. In cases of residence, they may ask for your passport, flight/ferry bookings, utility bills (in UK and abroad), rental agreements to confirm when you rented out your UK home or rented a home overseas, copies of your driving licence, insurance documents, etc. They may also cross check other information they have access to, such as your credit reference, voters records, maybe immigration/passport control, maybe banking information, etc.

If you don't declare correctly and they find out, then you face fines of 100% of the tax underdeclared, plus interest, late payment surcharges, etc.

stehouk

I wonder what they do with the information now that big brother scans passports onto a computer when entering a different country or returning home.

Cook_County

HMRC will look at ATM cash withdrawals, credit card bills, border data, data supplied by other countries. Not sure why this matters though as you would only ever declare things honestly.

laticsforlife

But in answer to your basic question - yes HMRC has access to Border Force data and can and does use this in enquiry work, but generally it's targeted specifically, i.e. they don't have some massive list of passport movements to match with tax returns to see if that £5,000 you are declaring matches with your 3 trips to Dubai!! Maybe they should though, LOL

Border force can provide a response in 30 minutes if the case were urgent (maybe some Criminal where they need to know if he's done a runner).