Employees Working Abroad

Newsletter issue - November 07.

If you go to work abroad you may think your liability to UK income tax and NI will cease as soon as you leave this country. That is certainly not the case.

To escape UK income tax you must be employed in a full time contract overseas for at least a year and you need to be resident outside of the UK for a whole tax year. You must also restrict your visits to the UK during that time so you spend less than 91 days per tax year here, averaged out over a four year period following your departure from the UK. From 6 April 2008 you need to count the days of arrival and departure in the UK as part of the total of days spent in the UK, so it is important to keep accurate records.

The rules for national insurance are quite different. If you were employed in the UK before taking up an employment abroad, you remain liable to pay UK class 1 NICs for 52 weeks after you leave. But there may be a special arrangement about paying national insurance with the country you are going to, especially if this is within the EU. You may also become liable to pay social security charges (such as NICs) in the overseas country you are posted to, so it's best to get local advice on that.