==== ==== To help with your taxes, buy the #1 tax software TurboTax here: http://vur.me/s/TurboTax0 ==== ====
Now, though with the ease of international travel and the rise in wealth of the middle classes there are more opportunities to allow anyone to consider taking advantage of these opportunities to become a tax exile. Why become a tax exile? Well the answer to this is pretty obvious...to avoid taxes! Although the UK does have some generous tax reliefs, especially for businesses or assets that are used by a business there are still a significant number of people who could be subject to high rates of tax. Who becomes a tax exile? Anyone can become a tax exile, but here's some of the typical people who move overseas to avoid UK taxes: UK property investors One of the biggest groups of people who can be hit by higher tax rates are property investors. The high price rises over the past couple of years have left many with huge paper gains, but also significant levels of debt. If properties have been remortgaged to obtain funds to invest in more property purchases it could easily be the case there may not be enough cash left after the sale to satisfy any UK tax bill. By moving overseas before disposal they would be looking to ensure that any disposal of the properties would be free of UK capital gains tax. If they also establish residence in a capital gains tax free country, they could avoid overseas tax as well. UK shareholders They can avoid UK income tax on dividends and capital gains tax on share disposals by becoming a tax exile Webmasters The nature of the internet means that they can conduct their business from anywhere. Many websites are run from one room operations and have limited staff or running costs. Depending on the services actually provided they can structure their activities as being conducted from overseas to ensure that they avoid UK tax and filing requirements. Wealthy Pensioners Inheritance tax is a big issue for many. Losing UK domicile allows them to potentially avoid UK inheritance tax on their overseas estate. How to avoid the main UK taxes Income tax This is determined to a large extent by your residence status. Therefore if you are UK resident you'll be charged to UK income tax on your worldwide income. If you're non UK resident you'll only be charged to UK income tax on your UK income. However, in practice there are a number of exemptions for non UK residents. In particular if you're non UK resident (and ordinary resident -- see below) you should be able claim an exemption for UK source interest and dividends on the basis that no tax is deducted at
source. So a non resident shareholder can avoid UK income tax on dividends. Any overseas income will be excluded from UK tax, but other UK income such as UK trading income and rental income will still be taxed in the UK, even if you're non resident. Capital gains tax This is one of the key tax exemptions. Individuals who are non UK resident are exempt from UK capital gains tax on UK and overseas disposals provided they're not used for the purposes of a UK trade. So unless you use the UK assets for the purpose of a UK trade you should be able to claim the capital gains tax exemption. Note that a caveat here is that if you've owned the asset before you leave the UK you will usually need to remain overseas for five full tax years to avoid the capital gains tax charge. This is the main attraction for many tax exiles, and UK property investors for example could take advantage of these rules to avoid paying any tax on the disposal of UK properties. Inheritance tax Your liability to inheritance tax has nothing to do with your residence status. Instead this is almost solely concerned with your domicile status. If you lose UK residence, you'll be able to take advantage of the income tax and capital gains tax exemptions as above, but your worldwide estate will still be subject to UK inheritance tax. If you lost your UK domicile you'd only be subject to inheritance tax on your UK estate, although you'd find that most UK domiciliaries would have a UK estate that was below there UK nil rate band (as they'd hold assets overseas) to ensure there was no inheritance tax charge. So if you wanted to become a total tax exile you'd need to lose both your UK residence and domicile status. If you weren't too concerned with Inheritance tax, at least not for the time being, you'd be mostly focused on losing your UK residence status. Losing UK residence status We've looked at this in detail in a few other articles so ensure you read any related articles carefully. There is a much publicised rule from the Revenue that states you can lose UK residence if you are in the UK for less than 90 days per tax year (on average over a period of up to four tax years). However it's crucial that when considering this you don't see it as just a case of counting UK visits. Other people have done this and have come up cropper. The Revenue are concerned with people leaving the UK, claiming non residence but still having significant UK ties. So if you want to establish non UK residence you should look at:
Keeping UK visits to an absolute minimum especially in the three tax years after you leave the UK As well as keeping the number of days to a minimum you would also need to keep the number of separate visits to the UK to a minimum. The UK tax requires not only the number of days here to be disclosed but the number of occasions of visits. Selling UK property Buying a property overseas
Gaining residence overseas Avoid being a director in UK companies Transfer any remaining UK assets overseas Move your family with your overseas Having your possessions with you overseas When going overseas you should always be looking to ensure that your absence is for at least three years. When combined with the above this would then also assist in ensuring your are non UK ordinarily resident (which is important particularly in terms of the capital gains tax exemption). Losing UK domicile It's perfectly possible for you to lose UK residence but still be a UK domicile for tax purposes. If you want to lose your UK domicile you will need to establish that you intend to live in your new country for the rest of your life. As many tax exiles will be UK citizens 'born and bred' they would need to show that they have severed all UK ties. This is a tall order for many, particularly if they still have family in the UK and make regular return visits. Check out the article 'Losing your domicile in 2007' from the link below. To establish this it takes a combination of actually residing overseas as well as having the intention to permanently reside there. Residing in an overseas country is not usually too much of a problem, it's the second leg of this, (intention) that can prove difficult. You can assist in this by making a statement of your intentions (eg a statutory declaration), but this needs to be supported by the actual facts. So you'd need to sell UK assets, join in with the overseas community, make friends etc and generally consider this to be your home for the rest of your days. You should also note that you'll probably be a deemed domiciliary for three years after you leave so any steps to lose UK domicile for Inheritance tax purposes will only be effective after the three years are up. Which ever option you go for or whatever tax you wish to avoid, you'll see that actually cutting UK ties, selling UK assets and minimising visits are crucial. Ensure you take detailed advice on any plan to become non resident or domicile for tax purposes.
Lee J Hadnum is a rarity among tax advisers having both legal & chartered accountancy qualifications. After qualifying as a prize winner in the Institute of Chartered Accountants entrance exams, he went on to become a Chartered Tax Adviser. He previously ran his own his own tax consulting firm, and has written a number of tax books as well as editing the popular tax planning website http://www.wealthprotectionreport.co.uk For a limited time, Lee is offering a Free report on Offshore Teleworking from his Offshore Tax Site wealthprotectionreport Wealth Protection Report offers a wide variety of information on tax matters including, Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Hadnum
==== ==== To help with your taxes, buy the #1 tax software TurboTax here: http://vur.me/s/TurboTax0 ==== ====