A report in this weekend’s Financial Times highlighted that HMRC have collected £154M following investigations into ‘high-income workers who are non-UK citizens’.
We have known HMRC have been scrutinising the tax affairs of non-domiciled taxpayers for some time. And a statement from them has attributed the increase in tax yield to “effective investigation of residence, and domicile status of the individuals seconded to the UK, ensuring earnings taxable in the UK are accounted for.”
This highlights the importance for non-domiciled expat workers to take specialist advice when managing their UK tax affairs.
The UK remains an extremely tax efficient country for non-domiciled taxpayers, if the conventional planning methods available are implemented correctly. These might include:
- Claiming the remittance basis to shelter non-UK income and gains from UK tax;
- Claiming overseas workdays relief, effectively exempting non-UK workdays from UK tax;
- Claiming detached duty relief if seconded to the UK.
These relief are valuable government approved incentives to attract a talented and skilful workforce to the UK. If the reliefs are claimed correctly, there is no reason for HMRC to challenge the them.
If you would like to discuss your affairs and how these reliefs might be applied to your circumstances please do not hesitate to contact us.
