Be careful with the difference between residency and domicile. I have a UK passport but live abroad all year (working in europe 6 months, living in thailand/oz 6 months). Last time I tried to get my tax situation sorted out four accounts refused to advise me so I downloaded te doco from the inland revenue. According to them you are 'resident' in the UK if you are not officially resident anywhere else. Resident means granted a residency permit. Having a house in thailand allows me to declare that I am resident in the UK but domiciled in thailand. In theory this means that I can get an interest account offshore and not pay tax on that interest on that money unless I actually move it into the UK, same with earnings.

This is in theory, in practise I avoid paying tax by maintaining their view that I am resident in the middle east (which i was for a while) and the interest my business account in the IOM attracts is only something like 90 pounds per month so I don't really need to worry about that having WHT applied to it.

HSBC Offshore is raising fees as of August 8, 2005. It is getting very expensive with fees like GBP10 for international transfers to other HSBC accounts. Discount for Premier customers with at least GBP60000 on deposit at hardly any interest.

Details here: http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/internati...accounts/tariff

All you ever wanted to know about becoming non-resident for tax purposes:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/faqs_general.htm

Get yourself a Nationwide Flexaccount then get yourself a Nationwide Offhsore account in the Isle of Man.

Edited July 26, 200520 yr by endure