If you go abroad, either permanently or to work for an extended period of time the you may be non-resident for the purposes of UK tax. As a non-resident, you will generally only be liable for UK tax on income arising in the UK, such as from letting a property (for which you will need to submit form NRL1 to HMRC).  The rule is that in order to be non-resident you should not be in the UK for more than 183 days in any tax year nor average more than 91 days per year. The rules have also recently changed so that days of arrival and departure only count as days in the UK if you are in the UK at midnight of that day.  The rules can be complex so ask us for advice related to your specific situation.

HMRC continue to press estate agents to obtain records of property letting that has not yet been declared by taxpayers. As well as writing to landlords who are currently letting property, they are now obtaining records of people who have let a house or flat in the past and may even have sold their buy-to-let properties. They will be writing to taxpayers to get them to declare both the income from the letting and any potential capital gain from the sale of the property. If you have a property that you let but has not yet been declared to HMRC, we strongly encourage you to come clean about this as soon as possible. The penalties for a ‘discovery’ rather than a voluntary declaration are significantly higher and we can approach HMRC in the first instance in order to deal with the matter in the best light.