Non Residency tax advisers?

[Tim Good]

Hello.

Since April 1st 2017 I have only been in the UK for 10 weeks and other times I've been sailing in Norway and overland travelling in Central America. Does anyone know and advisers that can assess my financial position and travel and tell me categorically and concisely if I can claim offshore status and if it is worth it with regard TAX.

I have read the guidance but it isn't particular straightforward.

Many thanks

 

[Carmel2]

Your entering a very murky world which will lead you down a few blind ally's re advice. We were fiscal nomad's for about 7 years with no income..... The noose tightens quite quickly..

 

[RichardS]

You definitely need professional advice as you suggest. There are so many issues concerning residency and tax residency that only a full analysis of your personal circumstances will be definitive. You should be able to find the nearest professional advisor online but you will need to pay, of course.

Richard

 

[Tranona]

Much more complicated than just the time you spend out of the country. The basic assumption that underlies being non resident is that you are cutting all ties with the UK and establishing yourself under another jurisdiction. So if you still own property in the UK and have other assets and income here for example, then unlikely you will be considered.

It also has an impact on other parts of your life (and your boat). For example you will not be able to register your boat on the SSR, if your boat is out of the EU for more than 3 years it may be subject to VAT on return (although this applies to residents as well), you will lose automatic entitlement to a range of welfare services including the NHS and accumulation of NI years, the right to vote - just a few off the top of my head.

For many people the aim is exactly the opposite - how to maintain residency while not actually spending all your time in the UK. You have to be paying a lot of income tax to make it worth considering becoming non resident.

 

[GrahamM376]

We looked at doing this but decided it's best to keep UK residence, particularly as we're getting older and more likely to need medical care at some point. Portugal is certainly a place not to wind up in hospital. Friends returning to UK after declaring their absence for several years say they have less rights than newly arrived immigrants.

 

[GHA]

"categorically and concisely" - probably impossible. And unless you've been earning loads eleswhere not much to be gained if anything .
"a friend " is non resident anywhere but for most not very easy to do realistically. They're quite picky these days, a colleague had to pay up after going to stay with her parents for a month between contracts so was seen as "having lodgings available" or whatever the clause is.

 

[RAI]

HMRC is unlikely to let go of you until they have one of their forms signed by the tax authority in your new place of residence saying that it has you on its books.
If you have property in the UK, HMRC is likely to treat you as a non-resident landlord and expect tax on its rent, no matter what.
If you have any UK income/pension, it will have to be on that form your new tax authority signed, for HMRC to let go.
Then there are other taxes to play with, like death duties, which have no double tax agreement.
Pensioners get off lightly in most of the EU with some countries offering 10 year income tax moratoriums and its easier to transfer NHS medical cover to your new host country. But that is still country specific.
Then there's getting yourself a non-domiciled status, foreign income must stay foreign (Google will help you with finding advisors for that).

 

[WhiskeyTownRacer]

Much more complicated than just the time you spend out of the country. The basic assumption that underlies being non resident is that you are cutting all ties with the UK and establishing yourself under another jurisdiction.

I think you're confusing Domicile and Residency with that quoted statement, or have described poorly what you meant. A quick browse of https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence will confirm (An example statement from that page: "You’re automatically non-resident if you spent fewer than 16 days in the UK (or 46 days if you haven’t been classed as UK resident for the 3 previous tax years)". Similar confirmation is available on their site for the basic rules on Domicile, to which you refer. Of course life is rarely that simple and there are plenty of cases where this statement has been shown to be a half truth at best, but saying you need to sever all ties is blatantly inaccurate, that relates to part of the Domicile test.

That said, residency status can in some cases be rather complex as the OP has intimated. I can only suggest what others have said, some research on specialist advice.

Presumably OP, you have read the guidance notes on statutory residence test? Another option would be a call to HMRC, they do (or did last time I was involved in this area) have a specific department to deal with residency issues. You may get some valuable advice from this route but may also have to wade through some unhelpful/ignorant types along the way.

Before going to the trouble and likely expense of specialist advice, perhaps consider in depth what you're looking to gain?
If you have UK sourced income, pension(s)/property/savings/dividends etc then as RAI stated HMRC are likely to want their bite, in order to avoid that you need to be classified resident elsewhere and be willing/able to prove such. The OP doesn't give sufficient information to your intentions or what benefit(s) you expect from such a course of action.

 

[lpdsn]

I think you're confusing Domicile and Residency with that quoted statement, or have described poorly what you meant.

+1

There's no indication that the OP has or intends to commit himself to making his permanent home in any other particular country, so HMRC are going to consider him UK domiciled (assuming he is already) and tax him accordingly, which will be UK and world wide income with exceptions (e.g. in country of residence). Also worth noting that many countries' tax authorities don't even have the concept of domicile so will be looking for him to pay them tax on everything too. Which is where it gets down to the double-taxation agreement between the countries concerned. I suspect he doesn't want to start paying tax in Norway. Maybe better not even to ask.

Also, there are pairs of countries where there isn't an agreement - a mate ended up paying tax on the same income in two EU countries as they hadn't an agreement in place at the time, which was painful. He more or less ended up working for nothing.

 

[greeny]

Changing your country of residence for income tax is relatively easy providing you meet the requirements clearly laid down on the HMRC website. I.e. the residency tests etc. and if you read them you will soon know if you qualify or not. If you choose to go this route there is a process to be completed both in the UK and the new country of choice. It does take time and effort to complete but it's something you can complete yourself. I don't think that this is what you are asking about though.
Not paying tax anywhere is more difficult. Get professional advice.

 

[Tim Good]

Not paying tax anywhere is more difficult. Get professional advice.

Yes this is what I was trying to determine. I'm mean the premise is that while you're not living in or benefiting from the UK, its infrastructure, security, health system and all the other things our taxes are spent in, then should you be expected to pay tax during the period you're not around. For me it could well be a number of years before I'm back.

 

[DownWest]

Client moved from UK to Monaco residence and became non UK domiciled. Then moved out of Monaco to become non resident anywhere. Carefully avoided exceeding the allowed days in Uk and moved between countries to stay well under the 180 day limite. Obviously well off and had the best advice. Finances organised in Lichenstein and car registered there too. ( I got held up at boarders driving it as not many customs guys had seen the plate) Last I heard, he was still non dom anywhere, but spent time in Florida.

 

[WhiskeyTownRacer]

Yes this is what I was trying to determine. I'm mean the premise is that while you're not living in or benefiting from the UK, its infrastructure, security, health system and all the other things our taxes are spent in, then should you be expected to pay tax during the period you're not around. For me it could well be a number of years before I'm back.

You're not really giving sufficient information to be able to assist further, however, reading your quoted text my guess is you have no chance of achieving what you think you can/should be able to.

The last line in your post suggests the UK is your home. My thoughts are that you need to do some reading of the SRT and the components which it includes. It's really not too complex on the surface. As already intimated, I'm guessing you would fail the ART section, as a minimum.

Once you've done the required reading I would expect you to come to the conclusion it's not worth trying to pursue, unless you're in the UHNW category, in which case one has to wonder why someone in that position would ask here and not already have advice in place.

I tried to find something simple for you to peruse, try this: http://www.greaveswestayre.co.uk/planning-non-uk-residence/ I have no idea if the company publishing are any good and you need to do your own research too, but it appears to give a reasonably succint summary for a starting point. Half an hour on your chosen search engine should reveal that vast majority of what you need to know and how it might interact with your circumstances, from there you can decide if the spend for professional services is worthwhile.

 

[poter]

Does it really matter what his status is - Domicile or non, etc. I assume that he has no income in UK therefore not liable for any UK tax.

 

[MoodySabre]

If you are domiciled in the UK then you will pay UK tax on UK sources of income (eg rent and pensions) and be entitled to the normal personal tax allowance. If you have become not resident and not ordinarily resident then you will not pay UK tax on income arising elsewhere. If you are not clear of your status then take professional advice based on your living and working arrangements for the past three years.

 

[MoodySabre]

Does it really matter what his status is - Domicile or non, etc. I assume that he has no income in UK therefore not liable for any UK tax.

You assume a lot.

 

[Tim Good]

You assume a lot.

He does. Not entirely sure where I alluded to no UK income.

But to be clear I have income from property, dividends, investments and salary. I've just heard of people who long term cruise abroad that fall into no tax system like post 12. Anyhow I'll do more investigations.

 

[Irish Rover]

I am an Irish citizen and former Irish resident and I am now classed as non-resident for tax purposes. When we still had property in Ireland which was rented out the tenant was obliged to deduct tax before paying us the rent and remit it to revenue - we could have appointed an agent to collect the rent on our behalf and then the agent would have been legally obliged to pay the tax. When we had a few bob in the bank in Ireland the bank deducted tax on the interest payable and remitted it to revenue. I have a small public service pension from Ireland and tax is deducted before I receive it. Unfortunately I don't have any other sources of income from Ireland but if I did I'd be fairly sure the same principle would apply - the payee would deduct tax at source and remit it to the revenue. I'd be surprised if it's not the same in the UK.

 

[jordanbasset]

He does. Not entirely sure where I alluded to no UK income.

But to be clear I have income from property, dividends, investments and salary. I've just heard of people who long term cruise abroad that fall into no tax system like post 12. Anyhow I'll do more investigations.

If it helps I was officially non resident for tax purposes for 2 years(was resident in the UAE), I still had to pay tax on UK derived income, (property etc) but not on income from my UAE employment

 

[KellysEye]

We got not resident and not ordinarily resident status, when long distance sailing, you have to be out of the UK for four years with no fixed abode. You will continue to pay UK tax on any income such as property rental. We moved our bank accounts offshore but don't use a European offshore account, such as Jersey, because there is now a 30% withholding tax. If you want our accountant's name and details please PM me.