Otakujin

My Company are talking to me about a 12-18 month secondment to HK from the UK, my family would stay here in the UK and I wondered if anyone could tell me how this would affect my tax position would I be able to pay local tax as it is much lower than here in the UK also any information on what its like to live in HK would be great.


Thanks

bakedbean

Just to say Welcome to the forum I cannot help you but hopefully someone will be along soon to give you an answer

HKG3

Does the deal you have from the company include any housing allowance? House cost in the HK is very high.

I do not know whether you can pay HK or UK taxes while on secondment in Hong Kong for a UK company. However, if you end up paying HK taxes, you may wish to pay class 3 national insurance contribution to give you extra UK pension rights -

https://www.gov.uk/pay-voluntary-cla...rance/overview

You also wish to open a Hong Kong bank account before your move. I would suggest you go to the local HSBC to see what they can do -

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/overseas-account-opening

HSBC is one of the biggest retail bank in Hong Kong.

ex reg

I'd guess that unless you become non resident in the UK, which requires a full 12 month outside UK, April to April then you will be subject to UK tax on your earnings and housing allowance if you have one. This used to be the case when I was working in HK a few years ago, 17 years akchewlee.

HKG3 is spot on about paying Class 3 NI contribution.

If your company are talking about a secondment then I'd presume they should already have all the info you require.
No problem in getting an outside view though as 'companies will be companies' and their bottom line will come first rather than the interests of the individual.

hong_konger

The UK have made extensive changes the requirements for being classified as a non resident for tax purposes. There is now a statutory residents test. It works like flow chart. You need to down load it from the HMRC web site. Being out of the UK for a full tax year (April to April) is now just one of a number of requirements that need to be satisfied.

Otakujin

Thanks for the feedback, will have to check this some more as need to ensure i do not end up worse off.

hong_konger

Here is the link to the document that details the new rules.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...dence-test-srt