is it possible to be non-resident anywhere and so have no need to pay tax?

[Clarinet9]

SO after reading the childminder house in Spain thread it got me wondering, is it possible to pay no tax on an on-going basis?
SO you live somewhere but for less than 1/2 year, work in the UK but as long as you don't spend all your holiday where you live or where you work. No tax liability.

it has got me curious i am sure there is a loophole somewhere but I can't see it (disclaimer clearly I am not an accountant!

thanks

sorry just to clarify i am not implying that childminders all have houses in Spain, or don't pay tax etc etc

i know it is bad form to start a thread about a thread but it didn't seem right to start this again at the end of the other thread and traffic is pretty slow here....

It is partly possible. If you are non-resident in the UK (which means not spending more than 3 months here, although that may have changed) you are not liable to UK tax for income outside the UK. If you are also not resident anywhere else, you aren't liable for other tax. So you can put money in offshore accounts in tax havens and legitmately not pay tax on that.

any earnings in the UK (e.g. from a let-out house) are still liable to UK tax though.

don't think your scenario would work though due to the time limit in the UK.

oh thanks for replying
my mistake sorry I thought it was 6 months in the UK.

current limits are no more than 90 days in the UK, averaged over four years. Definitely no more than 183 days in each year - which may be where your six months come from.

Does depend where you are deemed resident . In some cases expats are taxable twice or on assets owned in one country and income in another. Also whether there may be double taxation agreements in force.

must be

(I have to confess I haven't studied them -not really relevant to me and I thought I knew what it was so didn't need to IYSWIM)

thanks

The residence rules for the UK have changed and now it's very difficult to be non-UK resident if you've been here in the recent past and still work here, or have a house here that you occasionally use, or have close family here, or... You get the idea.

You can have a look at the guidance in RDR3, although I really wouldn't recommend it unless you really have to - the rules are quite complicated.

It is definitely possible (FIL falls into this category) but its not easy and you are very restricted in where you can spend time and how much. If you hold a US passport for example, they will tax you on worldwide income no-matter if you never set foot in the states! Why the uk doesn't adopt this rule I don't know, it would crack down on a lot of tax avoidance.....

Once travel to the moon is available to the masses, I wonder if the moon will be in some countries tax area, or maybe have one of it's own.

In general, where an individual is not resident under domestic law in any country, the double tax treaty between the UK and [whichever other country/ies] you spend time in during the year will dictate where tax is due. And tax will be due somewhere!

Also, SpecialSubject, the UK tax residence rules you mention are not the current rules, they are now outdated, replaced by the Statutory Residence Test, which makes it more difficult to break UK tax residence. The old 90 day / 183 day rules have gone.

Of course, if under domestic law you are not resident in the UK for tax purposes, and are resident in say the UAE, where tax is 0%, then yes you could totally legitimately not pay income tax anywhere in the world.