Returning home after 15 months abroad - what should I expect?

[Belen82]

I’ve lived abroad for short stints (maximum 1 year) in my early 20s, but at the time didn’t like the town I was living in so was happy to be away. This time I left my favourite city in the world (and what is truly ‘home’) as a fairly new mum (9 month old baby) painfully leaving behind a happy life and lovely, like minded friends. It’s been a hard year abroad (for my husbands job) - living in a small and isolated town in Europe, and thankfully he has managed to get a transfer home in a few months time. I’m worried that life would have changed, I feel like when you leave friends fill the gap you left. Or will it feel like I never left? Keen to hear experiences

Hopefully given the short amount of time you've been away you should be able to pick up where you left off especially with a young child - there are so many opportunities to meet up with old friends and make new ones.

Slightly off topic but really important given the limited time you've been away - when you return will you have been out of the UK for at least one full tax year (6th April of one year to 5th April the next)? That's the basic criteria to be non tax resident and any worldwide income from the time abroad would taxable in the UK if that condition isn't met. Depending on specific leaving and returning dates it can mean being out of 1 year and a day or 1 day less than two years. People have been caught out not knowing this and end up with a huge tax bill they weren't expecting.