Buying Uk Shares From Thailand

[prakhonchai nick]

The UK non-res rules are very clear.

The liability for tax on interest on savings is limited to any tax deducted at source. If the interest is paid gross (as it is on certain bonds, or if you complete an R105 form) there is no further liability to tax. If you have other taxable UK income and file a tax return then the gross interest is treated as "disregarded income" and is not included as taxable income.

http://www.hmrc.gov....al/saim1170.htm

A similar rule applies to dividend income, though of course there is no way of avoiding the small dividend withholding tax, nor can it be reclaimed.

So basically if you are non-res then there is no limit to the amount of gross interest or dividends you can receive, and none of it is subject to any further taxation in the UK.

If you are fortunate to become non domiciled, (needs a lot of convincing the Inland Revenue) then the tax liability passes to your chosen country of domicility (in our case Thailand) and you may then be subject to have to pay tax using Thai tax rates and personal allowances. Certain pensions are tax exempt with conditions applying.

I personally would gain nothing from becoming non-domiciled (and I have absolutely no desire to be so).

As far as tax in Thailand goes, liability is limited to money earned in Thailand, and money earned abroad and remitted to Thailand in the same year.

Thank you Darrel for the clarification. I will have to see if I can get my current building societies to accept an R105

My speciality is pensions and NI contributions.

Re Thai taxation, is it a calender year; a Thai tax year or a UK tax year?

[partington]

About the UK brokerage account for non-residents: I went through a fairly frantic search not so long ago.

I had a chunk of stock in E-trade UK for years, but of course they suddenly announced they were ceasing trading a year or so ago. I wasn't able to find another UK broker in time that would accept an expat as a client, so had to agree to them just sending me a share certificate of scarily huge value in the mail.

I was desperate to deposit the certificate with a UK online broker so I could trade instantly if necessary (plus as non-resident be exempt from capital gains tax, of course).

I finally found one that happily accepted a Thai-resident UK citizen as a customer (nearly all do not, as you've found). They do need a UK bank account in your name to fund purchases/ deposit sales proceeds , and proof of address in Thailand. Can do online trading efficiently and in real time (though I almost never do).

They are Charles Stanley Fastrade:

https://www.fastrade.co.uk/wps/portal

Of course I am always afraid they will one day write to tell me they are closing all non-resident accounts, as this seems to be an increasingly common occurrence in today's climate, but up till now it's been fine.

I too am living on fixed term bonds and deposits, and also a bit worried about what to do with the cash when they mature next year. Interest rates are too low to be sure of anything like the return I get now, (never mind the almost certain round of bank failures that will occur when Greece defaults), so if you come up with any good ideas..

[Darrel]

I will have to see if I can get my current building societies to accept an R105

Good luck. They do exist but they aren't numerous, and you often have to be quite insistent to get anywhere with them.

Re Thai taxation, is it a calender year; a Thai tax year or a UK tax year?

Only guessing, I'm afraid, but I would imagine the calendar year. It surely wont be the UK tax year, and as far as I know the Thai tax year is the calendar year. I dont have any taxable income here anyway.

[Darrel]

TD Waterhouse do a non-res trading account.

[dsfbrit]

About the UK brokerage account for non-residents: I went through a fairly frantic search not so long ago.

I had a chunk of stock in E-trade UK for years, but of course they suddenly announced they were ceasing trading a year or so ago. I wasn't able to find another UK broker in time that would accept an expat as a client, so had to agree to them just sending me a share certificate of scarily huge value in the mail.

I was desperate to deposit the certificate with a UK online broker so I could trade instantly if necessary (plus as non-resident be exempt from capital gains tax, of course).

I finally found one that happily accepted a Thai-resident UK citizen as a customer (nearly all do not, as you've found). They do need a UK bank account in your name to fund purchases/ deposit sales proceeds , and proof of address in Thailand. Can do online trading efficiently and in real time (though I almost never do).

They are Charles Stanley Fastrade:

https://www.fastrade.co.uk/wps/portal

Of course I am always afraid they will one day write to tell me they are closing all non-resident accounts, as this seems to be an increasingly common occurrence in today's climate, but up till now it's been fine.

I too am living on fixed term bonds and deposits, and also a bit worried about what to do with the cash when they mature next year. Interest rates are too low to be sure of anything like the return I get now, (never mind the almost certain round of bank failures that will occur when Greece defaults), so if you come up with any good ideas..

Thanks for this feedback Partington. I will keep this thread bookmarked for future reference and see if they are available if I need them in the future. I have decided though that for me, for now, its all too much hassle. I will open two more accounts offshore, one with Santander (alliance and leicester) and one with Nationwide.

I will then have my funds spread between Coop, Santander, Lloyds TSB and Nationwide.

It may not be full proof, but at least it spreads the risk. Certainly Coop and Nationwide should not have too much exposure to the Sovereign debt in the Eurozone - should it!!!!

Good luck with your investments - these are strange times indeed - but for people who do not panic I suppose they can be a 'buying opportunity' cant they....

[dsfbrit]

TD Waterhouse do a non-res trading account.

Well thanks Darrel, I will keep this for future reference. For now though, I did not realise Nationwide were offshore as well. So I have decided to open an account with them. Should be pretty safe splitting the funds between Coop, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide and Santander... if not - oh well thats life isn't it!!!

Thanks again for your help

Dave

[Darrel]

Good luck with getting past the KYC requirements from Santander offshore. They are nothing short of insane.

Nationwide and Santander are both in the list of the top 50 safest banks in the world.

The Coop offshore has no exposure to anything dodgy and is backed by the Coop onshore.

LloydsTSB is owned 43% by the UK government, so they are unlikely to let it collapse. It doesnt have huge exposure anyway.

[dsfbrit]

Good luck with getting past the KYC requirements from Santander offshore. They are nothing short of insane.

Nationwide and Santander are both in the list of the top 50 safest banks in the world.

The Coop offshore has no exposure to anything dodgy and is backed by the Coop onshore.

LloydsTSB is owned 43% by the UK government, so they are unlikely to let it collapse. It doesnt have huge exposure anyway.

I have been opening an instant access account with Santander (Alliance and Leicester) Isle Of Man for the last MONTH. The plan was to use the instant access account as a 'feeder' account for the bond account, to receive the monthly interest etc...

I did this as I thought I could do the KYC stuff now and save the aggro when a Lloyds TSB bond matures next month. Just as well I did, as despite me sending the info they asked for, they asked me the source of my funds. Fair enough, but the deposit was only 5000 pounds. I had sent them some original documentation to prove my address, which showed an income from one source to be 4000 pounds per year. So i said cannot you just use that as proof as it comes to 5000 pounds in about 15 months anyway.

It was another case of 'computer say no' - they wanted me to send them copies of where all my interest was paid into and they would not accept internet printed statements - so I needed to contact 5 UK banks - two of them I could not request statements via the internet so had to make phone calls. Then wait a week or more for the letter to come to Thailand and then send to the Isle Of MAn.

All that for 5000 pounds

So I embarked on a 'campaign' telling them to get stuffed. It has taken 3 weeks and about 10 emails - one to the manager - to get a phone call from them to apologise for the inconvenience and get the account opened

without a load of unnecessary documentation to prove where I got 5000 pounds from!

Well worth the effort as next month I have been assured if I do open a 5 year bond savings acoount - then there will be no problems at all - hmmmm.... and I think I just saw a flying pig!!!

Thanks for your help, the Nationwide suggestion has made a big difference - they are nice and boring and as safe as houses, so I will put most of my money there anyway over the next period instead of Santander, Santander may pay a bit more interest, but who needs all the hassle.

Happy investing Darrel.

[seasia]

Hello

Maybe this could be of interest, on line brokerage claiming to serve expats.

They are ultimately owned by TD Waterhouse.

Trade rates seem high to me, I use iii in the UK.

No personal experience with Internaxx, just saw an advert for them and took a quick look.

http://www.internaxx.lu/

[Darrel]

One other option (and indeed the one I favour):

Onshore time deposits (aka bonds) that pay out within 5 years and are of at least GBP50,000 are "qualifying deposits" and interest on them should be paid gross by all onshore deposit takers, regardless of where the depositor is resident and without an R105 or R85.

As long as the depositor is non-resident then there will be no liability for any tax in the UK, but this is not the deposit taker's problem, only the depositor's.

Needless to say, many deposit takers have no idea what that means.

Oh, and Yorkshire Bank (onshore) also accept non-resident investors and R105s.

[bartender100]

Hello

Maybe this could be of interest, on line brokerage claiming to serve expats.

They are ultimately owned by TD Waterhouse.

Trade rates seem high to me, I use iii in the UK.

No personal experience with Internaxx, just saw an advert for them and took a quick look.

http://www.internaxx.lu/

Your not supposed to use iii if your living outside the UK, I recently asked them, this was part of the reply

Due to legal and regulatory restrictions a customer will not be able to trade online within their Interactive Investor Account whilst living outside of the United Kingdom.

This is a limitation of the design of our site that allows the price to be so competitive for our United Kingdom customers.

These restrictions, broadly speaking, do not permit usage of the site and any services while outside the United Kingdom.

For your reference, the relevant section (3.5) of the Interactive Investor Share Dealing terms and conditions state: