Savilesghost

19 hours ago, Bogbrush said:

I got the same type of letter and form from Barclays IOM and I think it's more serious than some guys think; for example, there're asking for your residential address in whichever country you're residing in (the assumption seems to be you're not in the U.K.) and also are basically saying they will pass your bank account status to the country of residence as a matter of course - that's how I read it.

 

The self-assessment form also asks for your current TIN (tax identification number) or a reason why you don't have one.... this has the propensity to open up a whole world of hurt.

The IOM and Jersey are already passing British pp holders/residents account details over to the UK authorities, the UK has agreements with around 60 odd countries which will be going into effect over the next few years, but Thailand isnt a signatory, but the likes of Singapore and HK are 

1 hour ago, lucky11 said:

 

 I have severed all ties to the UK but simply have my Nationwide account registered there to collect my company pension. I have been withdrawing it for 10 years from an ATM in Thailand now on a monthly basis so they must assume that I don't live in the UK

And this is the thing, you havent severed all ties with UK, as your maintaining a bank account there, if you couple that with spending "excessive" amounts of time in UK in a tax year, and you have direct family living there, HMRC can get it in their heads you are resident for tax in the UK and come looking for you

The whole resident/non resident for tax thing was changed in 2013 and its gone beyond just the number of days spent in the UK in any given tax year 

I read of a case some time back of a British pilot, who was resident in South Africa, who had a flat near heathrow which he stayed in on his layovers, he claimed non residency in UK for tax puposes, and the HMRC nailed his a@se to the wall because of the flat near Heathrow

On 12/12/2016 at 10:14 PM, Halfaboy said:

 

 

Thanks for all the contributions so far. I went (again) through the whole thread and made many notes.

 

We are now roughly 6 months further in time since the last post. Is there any news or are there any new developments ?

 

Would be pleased to hear as I have plans to open a Singapore account soon.

You basically need USD 200k on account with the likes of Citi and expect HSBC etc will the same....blame the yanks for all this 

On 13/12/2016 at 9:16 AM, jayceenik said:

I've had a bank account in SIN ever since I started working in Indonesia ages ago.

I started with SCB and moved to Citi when SCB made an egregious mistake in my account (rectified eventually)

Since last June Citi charges  monthly USD50 to accounts below USD200K

And transfers to banks outside SIN are charged ¼% fee plus cable costs.

Not good. I'll eventually move to another bank maybe HSBC.

HSBC are even worse

With citibank the USD 50/m charge only commences from March 2017 on existing accounts, automatic on new accounts..so if you have had your account as long as you say you have they shouldnt be charging you yet provided your balance stays above usd 20k which used to be the minimum needed to open a IPB account 

6 hours ago, macahoom said:

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

I have a feeling they may question me further as well:

 

I have never worked here (Thailand). I have lived here year-round for about 12 years. I do not pay tax in the UK or here.

 

The form does not appear to take into consideration the fact that people in my situation exist. 

HMRC are starting to go after people who are fiddling their tax and or their pensions and they are checking up on people who appear to be resident for tax in the UK but claim to live somewhere else, these checks are going to get more frequent on "strange" accounts...ie someone has UK bank accounts, possibly property they are renting out and the person claims they live in another country are going to be put under the microscope by the UK tax man,

Dont forget things like interest on savings and investment accounts are no longer automatically taxed and one normally needs to submit a "tax return" if one is renting out property in the UK  

The only "clean way" as regards non residency for tax in the UK is to have no property there, no bank accounts, no property and dpend less than 90 days per year in the UK

 if one is maintaining a UK address and bank account to claim pension increases and things like winter fuel payments but in fact you live in Thailand year round, there is a chance they will come after you for fraud 

Below are the new "tests" for non residency for tax in the UK which is a good reference 

http://www.expertsforexpats.com/expat-tax/statutory-residence-test/