Are You A Sexpat Or Do You Ride The Backwards Morality Train?

[ajarnpot]

I received an email about new tax laws for Brits. It was dated 6th April so I think it was not April fools type.

Anyone else know about this.

Previously I thought it was only Blair who wanted to brown nose the US and follow it hither and thither, but dissapointed in this bunch too - only to be expected I guess- but <deleted> I thought current government would be...........

oh well no need to sulk.. is there any truth in this?

Will it affect those who spend little to 0 time in UK?

Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything

[yoshiwara]

Liability for tax currently depends on your residency status.

[ajarnpot]

Which is being redefined somehow?

[meatboy]

what was the news?

[yoshiwara]

Which is being redefined somehow?

Maybe we read something recently about the amount of time a non-resident is permitted to stay in the UK each year is being tightened up?

[chiang mai]

The OP is almost certainly refering to the new tax residency rules and the associated test that came into force on 6 April, google "new uk tax on expats in thailand" to view a series of articles that discuss this subject, none of it will be new to most long standing forum members.

Here's one such article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/9923007/Be-prepared-for-Aprils-new-tax-residency-status-test.html

[meatboy]

The OP is almost certainly refering to the new tax residency rules and the associated test that came into force on 6 April, google "new uk tax on expats in thailand" to view a series of articles that discuss this subject, none of it will be new to most long standing forum members.

Here's one such article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/9923007/Be-prepared-for-Aprils-new-tax-residency-status-test.html

i am one they have no need to worry about,toooooooo honest to steal and tooooo proud to beg

i would rather live in a temple.yep thats free food and bed.t.i.t.

[manhattan55]

The new UK tax residency rules are complicated and supposed to conclusively determine whether you are a tax resident in the UK for the year beginning April 6, 2013. UK citizens who live in Thailand but have a home available to them in the UK need to be particularly careful. "Home available" could be the use of your family's home back in the UK.

You can read a good summary explanation here: http://bit.ly/XK9Pxw

[kblaze]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

[chiang mai]

It's slightly anoying to me at least that a UK citizen can be liable to pay UK tax after spending as little as 46 days in the country, yet to be elligible for NHS and pension cost of living beneifits requires that same person spends at least six months there.

[worgeordie]

They wont increase the pensions for British Expats,but want to

tax them,the bloody cheek of it. blood out of a stone,suppose

they are going to need more income to support the new flock

of immigrants,from those new EU countries.

regards Worgeordie

[yoshiwara]

It's slightly anoying to me at least that a UK citizen can be liable to pay UK tax after spending as little as 46 days in the country, yet to be elligible for NHS and pension cost of living beneifits requires that same person spends at least six months there.

...whereas I assume you would like it harmonised so that anybody who spends more than 46 days out of the UK be excluded from free NHS services?

[chiang mai]

It's slightly anoying to me at least that a UK citizen can be liable to pay UK tax after spending as little as 46 days in the country, yet to be elligible for NHS and pension cost of living beneifits requires that same person spends at least six months there.

...whereas I assume you would like it harmonised so that anybody who spends more than 46 days out of the UK be excluded from free NHS services?

I'm unsure, the UK government has previously taken steps to harmonise the requirements for pension (COLA increases) and NHS services (elligibility) and six months is the agreed timeframe, it used to be the case that six months was also the marker for tax residency however that goalpost has now been reduced potentially to 46 days..

[GavinK]

Nothing to worry about if you are genuinely living in here and have really ended ties with the UK.... that is, until you go to the great temple in the sky and then whatever you leave behind, whether here, in the UK, or elsewhere on earth, potentially gets hit by UK inheritance tax... You can't really escape it, but you can minimise it..

[Sheryl]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

I don't know anything about British tax law, past or present, but if they are in fact making expats working abroad liable for Birtish taxes that is not imitation of the US, which provides a very generous exemption for income earned abroad to people who have a "bona fide" residence abroad. I know as I have happily benfitted from it for the past 2 decades....

[maxman71]

I am US citizen and know full well the tax laws affecting US citizens living abroad. It does appear the UK is taking steps to go after more tax revenue from its' citizens living abroad whereas before they were exempt from most taxes.

Welcome to a world where those who are on the gov't dole perceive others as being successful, better off, etc. more so than they are, the better off and successful should be "punished" for their success.

This is becoming the more prevalent attitude in the US, and those of you Yanks who voted for the Commie Fraud in Chief and are now having to dig deeper in your pockets, man up and accept the fact you have helped to create this situation.

This is the reality and those who have historically supported such cr_ap need to get off their, well, "chairs" and do something about it.

[KHR1010]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

I don't know anything about British tax law, past or present, but if they are in fact making expats working abroad liable for Birtish taxes that is not imitation of the US, which provides a very generous exemption for income earned abroad to people who have a "bona fide" residence abroad. I know as I have happily benfitted from it for the past 2 decades....

Don't ruin his U.S. bashing fun with the facts of the matter. Any opportunity for these little people to take a pathetic jab at the US fills them with joy. I guess you can't blame them as they plod on in a world that gives little notice of them or their pitiful little country.

[Gerald14]

Don't be too sad about tax, Austrians have to pay too

[maxman71]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

I don't know anything about British tax law, past or present, but if they are in fact making expats working abroad liable for Birtish taxes that is not imitation of the US, which provides a very generous exemption for income earned abroad to people who have a "bona fide" residence abroad. I know as I have happily benfitted from it for the past 2 decades....

Don't ruin his U.S. bashing fun with the facts of the matter. Any opportunity for these little people to take a pathetic jab at the US fills them with joy. I guess you can't blame them as they plod on in a world that gives little notice of them or their pitiful little country.

Funny thing is, there are a lot of libertarian minded people in the US who look at the UK as the creator and perpetrator of the "Nanny State". And Nanny States require and demand ever-increasing amounts of draconian taxes from their serfs, errr, "citizens"...

[yoshiwara]

They wont increase the pensions for British Expats,but want to

tax them,the bloody cheek of it. blood out of a stone,suppose

they are going to need more income to support the new flock

of immigrants,from those new EU countries.

regards Worgeordie

That flock of immigrants from the EU presumably including the poorly paid NHS workers who keep the NHS operating and wiping your bum when you get that way. And looking forward to the Scots as the newest EU addition, not to mention the army of care workers from Eire an 'old' part of the EU.

[chiang mai]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

I don't know anything about British tax law, past or present, but if they are in fact making expats working abroad liable for Birtish taxes that is not imitation of the US, which provides a very generous exemption for income earned abroad to people who have a "bona fide" residence abroad. I know as I have happily benfitted from it for the past 2 decades....

Don't ruin his U.S. bashing fun with the facts of the matter. Any opportunity for these little people to take a pathetic jab at the US fills them with joy. I guess you can't blame them as they plod on in a world that gives little notice of them or their pitiful little country.

How true, but at least when we leave our pitiful little country to live elsewhere, we don't continue to pay tax back in the place where we used to live many years before and we're able to open bank accounts without hinderance or the long arm of the Inland Revenue reaching into our Thai bank accounts!

[howzat]

They wont increase the pensions for British Expats,but want to

tax them,the bloody cheek of it. blood out of a stone,suppose

they are going to need more income to support the new flock

of immigrants,from those new EU countries.

regards Worgeordie

The UK government is being taken to The Euro Court of Human Rights on the basis they are discriminating on immigrants for making them be in UK for more than 5 years before they can receive their free hand outs. If the Government loose then they will have a lot to answer for for not paying pension increases to us, many of us having paid full NI contributions for 40 years.

Rock on UKIP Nigel Farage

[topt]

They wont increase the pensions for British Expats,but want to

tax them,the bloody cheek of it. blood out of a stone,suppose

they are going to need more income to support the new flock

of immigrants,from those new EU countries.

regards Worgeordie

The UK government is being taken to The Euro Court of Human Rights on the basis they are discriminating on immigrants for making them be in UK for more than 5 years before they can receive their free hand outs. If the Government loose then they will have a lot to answer for for not paying pension increases to us, many of us having paid full NI contributions for 40 years.

Rock on UKIP Nigel Farage

The two items are completely unrelated and we don't really need another thread going on about British pension's do we...? (why are the emoticons always greyed out when you need them)

Unfortunately the title of this thread at least needs a ? at the end or should be worded differently. The subject has come up a few times in the last 6 months on TV. Personally I think the main reason for the changes are to try and get taxes paid from those who really are spending most of their time working and earning in the UK but have been able to get round the taxes by flying in/out every week and other devices.

Yes some of the changes may affect some "genuine" expats in Thailand but if, as the OP says, you spend little or no time in the UK then I don't see that there is really anything to get excited about.

[kblaze]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

I don't know anything about British tax law, past or present, but if they are in fact making expats working abroad liable for Birtish taxes that is not imitation of the US, which provides a very generous exemption for income earned abroad to people who have a "bona fide" residence abroad. I know as I have happily benfitted from it for the past 2 decades....

Don't ruin his U.S. bashing fun with the facts of the matter. Any opportunity for these little people to take a pathetic jab at the US fills them with joy. I guess you can't blame them as they plod on in a world that gives little notice of them or their pitiful little country.

Surely you aren't talking about me? You don't see the quote marks around my first statement? Do I need to explain what quote marks mean?

[wordchild]

They wont increase the pensions for British Expats,but want to

tax them,the bloody cheek of it. blood out of a stone,suppose

they are going to need more income to support the new flock

of immigrants,from those new EU countries.

regards Worgeordie

The UK government is being taken to The Euro Court of Human Rights on the basis they are discriminating on immigrants for making them be in UK for more than 5 years before they can receive their free hand outs. If the Government loose then they will have a lot to answer for for not paying pension increases to us, many of us having paid full NI contributions for 40 years.

Rock on UKIP Nigel Farage

The two items are completely unrelated and we don't really need another thread going on about British pension's do we...? (why are the emoticons always greyed out when you need them)

Unfortunately the title of this thread at least needs a ? at the end or should be worded differently. The subject has come up a few times in the last 6 months on TV. Personally I think the main reason for the changes are to try and get taxes paid from those who really are spending most of their time working and earning in the UK but have been able to get round the taxes by flying in/out every week and other devices.

Yes some of the changes may affect some "genuine" expats in Thailand but if, as the OP says, you spend little or no time in the UK then I don't see that there is really anything to get excited about.

exactly not an issue for genuine non residents, in fact, a big improvement on the current situation and should give people greater certainty about their status. here are HMRC,s latest guidance notes on the changes http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/rdr3.pdf

Edited May 31, 2013 by wordchild

[billd766]

Nothing to worry about if you are genuinely living in here and have really ended ties with the UK.... that is, until you go to the great temple in the sky and then whatever you leave behind, whether here, in the UK, or elsewhere on earth, potentially gets hit by UK inheritance tax... You can't really escape it, but you can minimise it..

How will the UK taxman know what I have in Thailand?

If he wants what is left of mine in the UK there is my Shetland sweater and a suit that I haven't worn since I got married in 2000. That is assuming my freind hasn't donated them to a charity

In Thailand the house and land is owned by my wife and son so there is only my personal stuff to deal with.

[chainarong]

"Its a sad sad sad day that Britain goes the way of the US in tax or anything"

then its been sad for quite some time..

Don't worry Australia has been doing this for years or trying and its complicated just what everyone needs.

[GavinK]

Nothing to worry about if you are genuinely living in here and have really ended ties with the UK.... that is, until you go to the great temple in the sky and then whatever you leave behind, whether here, in the UK, or elsewhere on earth, potentially gets hit by UK inheritance tax... You can't really escape it, but you can minimise it..

How will the UK taxman know what I have in Thailand?

If he wants what is left of mine in the UK there is my Shetland sweater and a suit that I haven't worn since I got married in 2000. That is assuming my freind hasn't donated them to a charity

In Thailand the house and land is owned by my wife and son so there is only my personal stuff to deal with.

I guess he'd ask the executors of the estate after a death certificate is filed at the UK embassy. Whether they tell him or not is another matter...

[billd766]

Nothing to worry about if you are genuinely living in here and have really ended ties with the UK.... that is, until you go to the great temple in the sky and then whatever you leave behind, whether here, in the UK, or elsewhere on earth, potentially gets hit by UK inheritance tax... You can't really escape it, but you can minimise it..

How will the UK taxman know what I have in Thailand?

If he wants what is left of mine in the UK there is my Shetland sweater and a suit that I haven't worn since I got married in 2000. That is assuming my freind hasn't donated them to a charity

In Thailand the house and land is owned by my wife and son so there is only my personal stuff to deal with.

I guess he'd ask the executors of the estate after a death certificate is filed at the UK embassy. Whether they tell him or not is another matter...

Best the taxman gets a good Thai translator then cos 'er indoors will go intoi the mai khao jai mode.