The boat bit seems easy.

[cynthia]

O.K., so we still have some fitting out to do, but choosing, buying, fitting out etc. seems as nothing to this house sale thing!

Why am I grousing? - Well the house sold the first day on the market. Great - Plan A - buy a small Uk base for residency purposes. We were gazumpped on the first house, for the second the survey was horrendous (and we truly loved this one), and (Plan B) the third is in France. (Does anyone know if you can retain your UK personal tax allowance if you have a residency permit in France and no UK residence? What happens if you rent out your French home in summer - can you be honest and declare the income without massive taxation? Anybody know a good source of information?) What on earth do I do with the furniture? How can I possibly reduce all those photos to one small box?

In the meantime, we're homeless from 19th April until June when we sail over to the Med.

Can we live on the boat? - It'd be great, but I have a three hour journey to work! Can I leave work? No, I'm contracted until July (the June trip is unpaid and I will be unemployed for the month - generous of them after 20 years, eh?)

I know I'm lucky, honest, and don't mean to complain anymore - well only a little!

When it is right, all will fall into place, but in the meantime ...............?

 

[Guest]

Tell me about it!

We have let our house and people move in on 18 May. Some of our furniture has very kindly been stored by another couple who are also ARCing, the kids have all bought houses and have removed the best bits for themselves and we are left with all the junk to get rid of. I have junked most of my clothes and there is still too much. How do you know what you will need? Our new lawn, which we just had laid, has blown away in the gales we are experiencing now, but next door will have a great lawn! I am finding butterflies in my stomach and I'm grinding my teeth and this is supposed to be relaxing. Can't wait to leave it all behind and get on board. By the way, my son came home from NZ and stored two small boxes of belongings for 6 weeks, cost him £50.00 a week, I think I'd look for someone's garage.

 

[Trevethan]

Not sure if you'd describe the price as modest, but my mother is selling her three bedroom cottage in North Devon for about £140k. Great potential as a rental property too!

If interested let me know!

 

[AndrewB]

I thought that if you are non-resident, income from property in the UK is pretty much the only thing on which you are likely to pay tax. There is an IR leaflet at
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/1999_00/helpsheets/ir300.pdf
with details. I've heard the Tax Office is fairly tough on what they will accept as non-residency.

When we were away I considered it advantageous to maintain UK residency, partly because it kept the cost of health insurance right down. We simply claimed to be 'living' at the address of the person who was acting as an agent for us. There were no checks on this.

I too would be most interested to hear from anyone who has given up UK residency for tax reasons when long-term sailing.

 

[cynthia]

I should be so lucky! Not giving up UK for tax reasons, merely moving to a smaller, cheaper house in a warmer climate and concerned re tax at source on UK earnings, (which will not be massive!!!) Able to retain a small (very) UK base if a) pegged into UK property prices and b) it is adventageous in terms of health, tax benefits - etc. Also still would like to have a say in the UK political scene and register a vote as I was brought up in the use it or lose it school of (thankfully northern) thought.

Not rich, but very happy (if somewhat harrassed at the present moment!)

Cynth

 

[Guest]

Insurance

Just as a matter of interest, do you have to maintain your social security payments to maintain your pension rights. We do here (Jersey) and we have to pay the self employed stamp until we are 63!

 

[cynthia]

Re: Insurance

Depends how long you have worked. I sent off for a pension forcast, I am entitled to a goodly percentage of a full pension. This gives me two choices, I can simply leave things as they are and claim a reduced pension at normal retirement age, or I can make a relatively small annual contribution until I have bought in the extra contributions.

Haven't decided which to do yet, a bit busy concentrating on finding somewhere to rent for the next few weeks!

 

[rallyveteran]

Non-residency

Today's Times has an article which may be of interest
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-264081,00.html
This confirms that a UK citizen residing abroad is entitled to a UK personal allowance. This was certainly my experience when living abroad on our yacht.

You are right that there are strict rules you have to satisfy in order to become non-resident but once the Revenue were satisfied I never heard from them again. Best to keep a record of visits to the UK and to take care not to stay long enough in any other country to become resident there.

I don't think keeping a residence has anything to do with residency. You can be UK resident without a house or not resident while keeping a house.

I think residency should affect your rights to NHS treatment but on the occasions I used the NHS on trips home I got free treatment more often than not.

You can keep the right to vote (in the last constiuency where you were resident) even though you become non-resident.

From the article it sounds as though there is more info on the inland revenue website.

Rallyveteran