Your UK tax residence status affects whether you need to pay tax in the UK on your foreign income. Non-residents only pay tax on their UK income (they do not pay UK tax on their foreign income) whereas Residents normally pay UK tax on all their income, whether it’s from the UK or abroad.
Tax residency hit the Statute Book on 6 April 2013 which was certainly a step forward at the time and provided a definitive legal test to determine the status of an individual in respect of their UK tax residency. That said given that there are many facets to the legal test and with continued misunderstanding from taxpayers and advisers alike we are continuing to assist individuals who are impacted by tax residency as it is not the most straight forward test to follow and also there are other complexities such as Split Year Treatment and ongoing residency matters that can affect your UK tax position.
HM Revenue & Customs have announced that they have created a new tax residence indicator tool to help customers to determine their tax residence status which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence.
Apparently the tool is suitable for most people whose affairs are straightforward and it pre-empts you to have certain information available before you use the tool such as:
- how many days you spent living and working in the UK and abroad
- roughly how many hours a week you worked
- family you have in the UK
- details of your home in the UK
The tool is relatively simple to use, albeit the questions take some reading and whilst this is useful it does not appear to give you a legally binding answer for your tax status. So if you are uncertain of your position please do get in touch with us to see if we can be of help.
Kate Thorburn is Private Client Tax Manager and can help with your personal tax-related queries, please feel free to call 01242 776000 or email kate.thorburn@randall-payne.co.uk.
