taxes after leaving the UK

[ghostpepper]

My wife and I were in the UK for a number of years but have left the UK permanently.

We had a very basic tax situation in the UK as all of our income was PAYE taxed, and our annual income was about 60k each. We left the UK in say Sept 1 2018. Unfortunately, I didn't know that we should inform the UK gov of this (more precisely, I didn't know it was so easy to do this online with their forms). This has been done. But now I guess I should probably do a P85 and claim any tax back that we may have overpaid.

We have only one minor complication and I don't quite know how to handle it. Our new jobs in the US started on Aug 1 2018, one full month before we left, so I guess technically, we should be taxed on the income from that job. So, while I thought we were likely to get a refund from the UK govt, we may in fact owe taxes (though in fact I doubt that. my guess is that it more or less balances out). Our new jobs pay slightly more than our old jobs, so I guess in some sense we should be paying tax on approximately one month more of income. My job in the UK ended the day before I left.

I don't quite know what to do. Should we declare the one month's income from abroad? It's not quite that I don't want to pay any tax owing (I assume it will be minor, and the US has a tax treaty with the UK, so I can use it to offset my US taxes), it's the headache and complication I don't want to deal with. There is a part of the P85 form that specifically asks when your new job abroad starts, so it isn't possible to omit the information, I would have to blatantly lie. And since I have already paid tax on that income in the US, i would have to muck about with that too.

any advice will be helpful. Thanks.

I am UK Citizen, but work outside UK. Maybe take a look at the Statutory Residence Test. Link is;

www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt

In simple terms you will be considered as UK Tax resident until your work outside the UK spans a full financial year (April 6 to April 5 the following year) and you are in the UK for 90 days or less during the financial year. So in your case you may be considered by HMRC as UK resident until 6 April 2020. However, UK and USA have a double taxation agreement so you will not pay twice.

You can still submit a P85 and I would suggest you do so as then HMRC will know that you intend to live outside UK permanently. Tax return for year ending 5 April 2019 is not sue until 31 Jan 2020 so time to submit P85. Once HMRC are aware of your intentions you may receive a letter that you are no longer required to submit UK Tax Returns as you have taken up residence outside UK.

Good luck