Expatriation

[expat]

I agree that if you born here (and your father was born here) the chances of getting a Non Dom status without hassle is remote.

But if you (or your father) were born outside the UK, you should be okay. And you can live and work here (especially if of European descent e.g French) no problem and use all the public services for free and have you income paid overseas.

Boomed!

That seems to me to be so, as you say. However, some would say that your example, of paying French taxes while using British public services, would not be the optimum arrangement

[ace00]

OK - we were doing so well but now I'm confused again. Is there someone I can pay to sort it - some kind of specialised accountant I guess?

BTW I am British, but have been mostly abroad for last 10 years. I didn't mind being resident in UK as it has / had quite a favorable tax regime, but I expect big tax rises across the board before too long and a general drift to "Scandanavian socialism" so guess it might be time "officialise" it.

[DimPrawn]

That seems to me to be so, as you say. However, some would say that your example, of paying French taxes while using British public services, would not be the optimum arrangement

Just because you are non-domiciled here (say you born in France or your father was) and you live here, does not mean you have to pay tax in France.

If you lived here, then you would not be resident in France and if your money was held outside of France (but not in the UK), then you would not pay tax on it anywhere.

A lot of people say/think "Well you've got to pay tax somewhere."

No you don't, many wealthy people (think friend of Phoney Blair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Green) pay less tax than their cleaner.

You just need to clever accountants and tax advisers. Oh and bunging the Labour party a few quid now and then.

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2...tax-avoidance/

[TimberWolf]

Just because you are non-domiciled here (say you born in France or your father was) and you live here, does not mean you have to pay tax in France.

If you lived here, then you would not be resident in France and if your money was held outside of France (but not in the UK), then you would not pay tax on it anywhere.

A lot of people say/think "Well you've got to pay tax somewhere."

No you don't, many wealthy people (think friend of Phoney Blair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Green) pay less tax than their cleaner.

You just need to clever accountants and tax advisers. Oh and bunging the Labour party a few quid now and then.

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2...tax-avoidance/

Funny how so many of these dodgy characters have been made Sir's or Lords. I see [Lord] Mandelson is in the news today for some boat trip with a rich Russian and a Tory.

Have they made B**** a Lord yet?

[expat]

OK - we were doing so well but now I'm confused again. Is there someone I can pay to sort it - some kind of specialised accountant I guess?

BTW I am British, but have been mostly abroad for last 10 years. I didn't mind being resident in UK as it has / had quite a favorable tax regime, but I expect big tax rises across the board before too long and a general drift to "Scandanavian socialism" so guess it might be time "officialise" it.

You are resident according to where you actually live. That can be more than one country, but usually is only one. You become non-resident in the UK quite easily, by becoming resident somewhere else. This you do by going to live there. Residence can change frequently, there is nothing odd about that.

Domicile is quite a different idea. As has been said, it is not necessarily where you are resident. It doesn't change just because you go and live and work somewhere else. Roughly speaking, it is where you intend to settle permanently; or where you or your parents were born if nothing else has changed your domicile away from that.

Income tax is normally paid according to a combination of:
1. place of residence,
2. place of earning the income.

The special point about domicile is that the above can be modified by it: specifically, if you are resident in the UK and earn in the UK but are not domiciled in the UK, you may not have to pay all the income tax to the UK that you would have to if you were domiciled here.