I Need Some Expert Tax Advice

eyelander911

I have been working in the UK for 15 months and I am a South African citizen.(domicile too).I have been trying to find information on how I can structure my income to save on tax but it seems to be quite an expert area.There is a way(I think)to structure it into an offshore company ( on what I've read -because of my domicilary status- I am only taxed on money I bring int the UK)
Is there anyone out there who is an expert who can help?
I am self employed working as a locum and my income is about 50 k.

Thank you

nlpnlp

As a non-UK domicile you are taxable on your UK source income and gains, and non-UK income and gains remitted to the UK.

How you are taxed also depends on your intentions when you came to the UK; i.e. how long you intended to stay here. If you intended to stay here 3 years or more you will be ordinarily resident. If you came here with the intention of staying less than 3 years , or had no definite plans then you will be not ordinarily resident. The difference is if you are not ordinarily resident, you will not (if you are an employee) be taxable on earnings relating to overseas workdays if you have your earnings paid outside the UK and you do not remit the earnings to the UK. If you are ordinarily resident then you would need to have 2 separate employments one for UK duties and a separate one based on employment outside the UK - what is called split contracts.

If you are self employed things are more difficult as the concept of overseas workdays doesn't (in the Revenue's eyes) apply.

It is possible for an offshore company to enter into an agreement to carry out work in the UK for £xx and in turn for the company to employ an individual for a lower amount to actually carry out the work. However, you are getting into potentially complex areas affected by IR35 regulations, Double Tax Treaties, possible tax avoidance.

It should be possible to organise your tax affairs in a tax advantageaous way making use of your non-domiciled status, but you should get some professional advice as you don't want to stray over into tax avoidance. It should be worth spending a few hundred £s getting some advice from a reputable firm of accountants, as if nothing else you will have someone to sue if the advice given turns out to be rubbish - which you won't have in respect of advice given on this website. The Inland Revenue do jail people for tax avoidance, or have the power to charge interest and penalties, etc if you get your tax wrong. So best not to take a risk.