New residence rules

News: March 2013

New residence rules

If you plan to leave the UK (permanently or for a limited period), or indeed you are coming to live in the UK, your exposure to UK tax is very much based on your tax status as being either resident or not resident.

At last from 6 April 2013 there will be a test laid down by tax law, rather than having to rely on HMRC practice. What the new law means is that in any circumstances it should be possible to determine your tax status from the answers to a list of questions. In many cases if you leave the UK the most important point will be the length of your visits to the UK. That in turn depends on what ties you will still have with the UK, and it is true to say that most people will potentially have a better deal than under the previous practice. The new law does have some important changes to the original proposals announced some time ago.