Leaving the UK to move to a remittance based tax system country with savings. Any concerns?

ideas_aggressive

Hi,

I’ve been researching remittance-based tax systems, which only tax income that is remitted to the country. I’m finding this to be a great way to save some money for 3 or 4 years. Also, what seems the only chance from escaping costly lifetime mortgages.

From what I learned, I can live from my own savings. Keep any remote work earnings in an international account such as HSBC Expats for a period of 4 years. Without remitting any income money to Thailand during the stay period.

I’d expect to have:

• A Visa and the tax residency,

• Tax ID, e.g. stay longer than 183 days

• Inform HMRC of my leave, e. g. no interest in coming back and have no assets, family ties, etc. I’ll pay every penny on departure for previous tax year or any other tax liability. If need to visit would never be more than 14 days in a year.

I’m going to contact a tax accountant to confirm this is correct, but until then I wonder if there’s anything I’m missing or of any concern I should research about?

Thank you!

Sam_666

So, you dont mind  working in gmt+7 time zone? 1600 - 0000 local time working hours suit you?
No way I  would cope with something like that.

TheGreenFrog

Remote working is in itself a complicated issue where you are, for example, working in or from a country which is not the country of your employment contract.  If the major tax you are trying to save is tax on your earnings then you should work out the tax issues around that first.

Re tax accountant, consider a tax accountant in your chosen country who specialises in advising expats - they are likely to be more familiar with the interplay between UK and new country of residence (Thailand I think you said) than a UK based tax accountant.  But they will probably be more familiar with expats who work in Thailand for local companies/branches than remote workers.  You may need tax accountants in both jurisdictions to assist your planning.

For leaving UK you will need to work out whether to claim split year treatment and what pre-leaving planning you want to do.  As for residency going forward,  my vague recollection is that if you are only spending 14 days a year in the UK you cannot be regarded as tax resident in the UK (days has a complicated definition) and you can in some circumstances spend many more days in UK  Details at  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt    But there are additional issues to consider such as UK sourced income, capital gains (especially if realised in first five years of leaving the UK) and other matters.