Moved out from the UK and closed my company but not sure where my dividend tax will b

[BlasterBates]

Just one point is that dividends as a result of you working for that company may be treated differently than simply investing in a UK company. That is why I think your accountant maybe right.

[oilboil]

Also worth considering that tax domicile is much more complicated than just days on the ground. The UK can claim you are UK resident for tax based on a large number of things; the place your feet are actually standing is just one of them

1) Wife/Husband/Kids under 18 in the UK still
2) Family home not rented out in the UK
3) Significant business interests

It's easy to get this stuff wrong...

[m0n1k3r]

Hi everyone

I'm non-UK national who used to contract for the past 5 years in the UK via a limited company. During this time I accumulated money in my company's. I moved out of the UK in May to Malta.

I went in through SRT test with a tax residency professional who confirmed that I'm non-resident in the UK for the current year. He also said that if I close the company my income tax will be due in Malta because I was a resident of Malta at the time of distribution. With one exception that, if I move back to the UK within 5 years I might still have pay tax in the UK. Following that advice I closed company and distributed the money as dividends as Entrepreneurs' Relief would apply only if I were resident in the UK anyway.

On the other hand, my accountant who usually assists me stated recently that the tax on that dividends will still be due in the UK because the reserves in my company were coming from the work carried in the UK territory. So in his opinion, the fact that I paid it out while being non-resident in the UK doesn't matter.

I know that tax residency is a complex subject so that's why decided to take professional advice on that subject... Unfortunately, I received 2 contradicting answers from 2 professionals so I hoped maybe I will find someone opinion here

Many thanks for any opinion

Malta. But I also believe it is the case for non-domiciled residents in Malta that the money is only taxed in Malta if you bring it into Malta. If the dividend is instead paid to an account outside Malta, and you keep it there (e.g. no cash withdrawals or card purchases in Malta from that account), there will be no tax to pay in Malta. Effectively the same rules that the UK used to have until a few years ago.

[je vais a la plage]

I am currently in the same predicament. Not sure if you managed to find out more since?

[Fred Bloggs]

It's fairly simple, download the double tax treaty and do what it says. the DTA over rides national law.

Malta: tax treaties - GOV.UK

The section you want is called Article 10.

[jamesbrown]

edit: oh, wait, holy thread resurrection, batman.

I think your accountant is wrong.

Providing that you were non-resident at the time the dividends were declared and that you don't become UK resident again within a 5yr period (i.e., providing you weren't "temporarily non-resident"), then there shouldn't be any UK tax on those dividends, regardless of whether they originate from profits earned while UK resident. But if you do return within 5yrs then, certainly, you will suffer UK tax on those dividends as though they were paid in the year of return from your temporary non-residency.

[NowPermOutsideUK]

Thank you James brown. This is my understanding as well

Blaster area above indicated that this might not be the case for one man band companies who had worked and retained profits. Do you know if that is in any way true

[jamesbrown]

Thank you James brown. This is my understanding as well

Blaster area above indicated that this might not be the case for one man band companies who had worked and retained profits. Do you know if that is in any way true

Neither I nor BB is a tax adviser, so you can take our opinions on that basis, but the question only arises because of the anti-avoidance provisions introduced in 2013 and, in that context, only for a closely controlled company. Thus, the point about receiving dividends from a publicly traded company seems completely irrelevant to me. The whole point of extending the rules from capital gains to dividends, alongside the new statutory residence test, was to prevent someone extracting profits from a company they controlled during a one-year period of non-residence.