I have just received a letter sent to my UK address from HMRC stating that they have received information that i "may" have received overseas income or gains that you "may" have to pay UK tax on. It also states that they have received the information through the UK's tax information exchange agreements with other countries. There is also a form to fill in with no box to tick for the option of i have no overseas income or gains only losses. They do not state what this information is and i know from experience that trying to call them is almost impossible due to the wait time, they also don't have an email address that i can find. Has any other UK expats received this or a similar letter and if so how did you deal with it ?
Hi CharlyB, The letter could be a scam so first check if the letter is a scam through this link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-a-letter-youve-received-from-hmrc-is-genuine If it is genuine you can access & contact HMRC through your online account - if you don't have one it's easy to set up (You may need to use a VPN) Hope this helps
The letter i received was an actual paper letter posted to my house so i doubt if it is a scam, i have an online account but no mention of this there.
You could read https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/non-domiciled-residents if you have not already done so. UK Tax Rules are based on Residency and Domicile and it seems easier to solve 10 Rubik's Cubes whilst juggling them at the same time than to get to understand a person's tax position. There is mention there of "Before 6th April 2025" and so there might have been a recent change (I have not read it in detail as I have no desire to go back to that predominantly cold and wet place!) and the new rules could be why they sent you the letter.
I have been reading some of this Tax garbage from the UK and the rules concerning being in the UK for 5 years of the last 15 years has been replaced with 10 of the last 20. Anyone near to fulfilling that condition needs to be cautious returning to the UK within the relevant time span. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm47020
I agree with your description of the inheritance tax manual, i wonder if the people who wrote it even understand it
Just in case you missed the headline of that entire website page: The rules on that page refer only to "foreign income". So whatever the status of expats in terms of how long they've been out of the UK, that only gets interesting if they acquired income from another source than the UK.
(I have no desire to go back to that predominantly cold and wet place!) Since leaving the Philippines I have been back here in UK for two winters, as a Retiree I have not found it to be all that bad, this past winter we had no snow in my location, the winter previous we only had a little flurry one day and that was it, since November of last year I can count on the fingers of my two hands the days when we have had continuous rain and even then the days where it lasted to full day were perhaps only 2 or 3? this summer up till now has been an exceptional one and I find I cannot stand the heat as much as I may have done in the past? When it comes to really cold weather again I will say as a Retiree this is not at all bad for me I can choose to go out when I please making sure to wear the correct clothes for the conditions, mostly I'm jumping into my Car with its heated seats and steering wheel. This was a whole lot different when I was working as a Telephone engineer I had to be out in all weathers, sometimes having to go up Poles where the wind chill factor aloft cuts through you like a knife, as it happens I have been up a Homo Sapien type Pole now that is a much warmer place to be. It gives me a kind of diverse pleasure on these winter mornings to hear people scraping the ice off their windscreens before going off to work, on these days if I have to use my Car I wait until mid morning when it usually has thawed out. All things considered life is not at all bad for me living here in UK and not near as bad as some would make it out to be? owning my own house and not having to pay rent does make a big difference, my OAP covers ALL of my living costs including all the household bills also to include the energy bill, this being around £115 every month throughout the year however that does not include the expense of owning and running a Car and fortunately I have a second pension which allows me to have this.
I could not agree with you more Dave. Whatever is he talking about? But you must remember that he is a country boy, from the far southwest. That's where the Atlantic rolls in and brings that 300o miles worth of rain. He would not be talking such rubbish if we had a leader
