Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Oldernotwiser

EdInvestor wrote: »

Actually, it's not possible to give up the right to British nationality, once acquired. You can obtain rights to other nationalities and stop taking out a UK passport, using the other passport instead, but you will still be a UK citizen who can take out a new passport at any time.

Once a Brit, always a Brit.

I didn't know that. Than you.

Cook_County

EdInvestor wrote: »

Actually, it's not possible to give up the right to British nationality, once acquired. You can obtain rights to other nationalities and stop taking out a UK passport, using the other passport instead, but you will still be a UK citizen who can take out a new passport at any time.

Once a Brit, always a Brit.

The UK Border Agency says you can indeed renounce British citizenship (Ed - are you perhaps confusing with domicile within one of the countries of the UK which remains extremely tenacious?). See: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/britishcitizenship/givingupcitizenship/howtogiveupnationality/

seven-day-weekend

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I didn't know that. Than you.

Neither did I and thanks from me too!

EdInvestor

Cook_County wrote: »

The UK Border Agency says you can indeed renounce British citizenship

Sure you can, and then you can get it back again later.

#If we register your declaration because you expect to gain another citizenship, you must do that within six month of the registration. If you do not, [/b]the registration will not take effect and you will remain a British citizen[/b].
#If you give up British citizenship or British overseas territories citizenship, you are allowed (only once) to resume that citizenship if it was necessary for you to give it up so that you could keep or gain some other citizenship.*
#If you give up British citizenship more than once, or for another reason, the Home Secretary may allow you to resume your citizenship, depending on the circumstances.

*The rules are a bit less clear-cut than they used to be, but it's still a citizenship which you have to make a very determined effort to lose, unlike some others one could name.

droopsnout

I just did the poll that's currently running on this site (see right-hand margin).

Shame on the majority of people!! Fancy not knowing which of those countries is not a member of the EU.

With such knowledge in short supply, no wonder the UK so often manages to take the wrong decision.

seven-day-weekend

Er... I think I know the answer droopsnout, but I'm not actually sure.....:o

Is it Norway?

gfplux

Readers of this thread may be interested in the following figures I have kept over the years. This shows the rate you get for your British Pound against the Euro.
I have used the OANDA site and the interbank rate because that is the default setting. The columns are not perfectly lined up but I hope the figures are clear.
Pound VS Euro History. Using OANDA http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory Interbank rate
YEAR YEARS LOW YEARS HIGH AVERAGE
1999 1.386 1.613 1.519
2000 1.557 1.758 1.643
2001 1.547 1.679 1.609
2002 1.526 1.647 1.592 coins & notes introduced 1/1/2002
2003 1.378 1.546 1.446
2004 1.406 1.528 1.475
2005 1.409 1.512 1.463
2006 1.424 1.499 1.467
2007 1.353 1.530 1.462
2008 1.019 1.366 1.259
Because I have the funds I usually buy my Euro's in large "chunks" Today (a bad day for the pound) I received the rate of 1.0764. It is never the perfect time to buy currency and in fact the Pound lost 2 to 3 cents in the last 24 hours. However the dead is done and I hope I can put that one worry behind me the the next few months.

The last time I bought was last January 2008 at 1.326. So my personal currency pain is nearly 19% in one year.

In July 2001 the rate I got was 1.662. That means a currency fall of 35% Ouch!

Savvy_Sue

Cook_County wrote: »

I am not sure what the confusion is here all of a sudden about tax!

And there then followed five rules which, despite their clarity, illustrated PERFECTLY why people get confused! :rotfl:

BTW, if any of you were pensioned out of the army, there was an interesting programme on Radio 4 this morning: a law was passed aeons ago to the effect that army pensions should be paid free of tax IF your being pensioned off was attributable to service, but apparently they didn't manage to do that, so a lot of people are owed a lot of back tax! I've never got the impression that that applied to any of you, but if it does, I think I'll go put something on the Armed Forces board, if it's not there already.

PolishBigSpender

A word of warning:

If you rely on any advice concerning tax from the tax office in the UK, make sure to get it in writing. I made the mistake of relying on telephone information from them as to my residency status a while ago - only to be hit with a tax bill at a later date.

I would also recommend anyone attempting to arrange their tax affairs between two EU countries to employ the services of an expert. The EU taxation agreements can be very complex, particularly as some authorities specialise in making things incredibly difficult.

droopsnout

That's a bit cryptic, PolishBigSpender.

On this particular thread, we may not be typical of Brit expats, as we seem to be ordinary folk with no large fortune behind us, living off an occupational pension, with or without a State pension, and probably with an ISA and a property in the UK as well as one in our new home country. In other words, our affairs are simple.

To illustrate your point, do you think you could please give an example or two of how our tax affairs can be complicated and better dealt with by an expert on our behalf, bearing in mind that the services of an expert would probably cost us all the interest we may receive on our savings (and more)?

Thanks very much.