Timing my move - tax
Feb 8th 2022, 5:50 am
#16
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2012
Location: Dépt 61
Posts: 5,254
Re: Timing my move - tax
Pulaski Ah well that probably explains it, I was self employed - didn't realise that being self employed meant you got special VIP treatment from HMRC 
I realise NICs aren't an income tax and yet it was HMRC that billed them and HMRC that took my query and quoted their rules at me in reply and tried to fine me for late payment. So maybe HMRC makes the NIC rules as well, who knows. (I put in a complaint to HMRC over the late payment fine and got the fine back plus compensation.)
It is good advice for peeps to consider paying voluntary NICs after they move if they haven't got enough years under their belt, I believe it works out cheaper than buying years back at a later stage, supposing you have that option.
In the end although I was annoyed at the time it turned a blessing in disguise that I had to pay NICs for a year when I was barely in the UK, because they charged me the self employed rate (can't remember what class they call it, is it class 2 or class 4 or something) which was a bargain really. I ended up short of years because when I left the UK in the dark ages you only needed 30 years for a full pension and I had 32 years, so there was no point paying voluntary NICs. Then they put it up to 35 but by that time I'd been away for too long to ask to start paying voluntary contributions (I think that was it, there was some reason why I couldn't). Part of my rationale for taking a job back in the UK, apart from that I fancied the job, was to make up my NIC years and qualify for a full pension and also to qualify for an S1. Then one year in, Covid struck and that was the end of my job. However I had worked and paid in as an employee for just over one full tax year, I'd had to pay for the year before I came back, and because I hung about for another year in the UK waiting out Covid and doing a very small amount of freelance work, that gave me the third missing year, so BINGO.
I realise NICs aren't an income tax and yet it was HMRC that billed them and HMRC that took my query and quoted their rules at me in reply and tried to fine me for late payment. So maybe HMRC makes the NIC rules as well, who knows. (I put in a complaint to HMRC over the late payment fine and got the fine back plus compensation.)
It is good advice for peeps to consider paying voluntary NICs after they move if they haven't got enough years under their belt, I believe it works out cheaper than buying years back at a later stage, supposing you have that option.
In the end although I was annoyed at the time it turned a blessing in disguise that I had to pay NICs for a year when I was barely in the UK, because they charged me the self employed rate (can't remember what class they call it, is it class 2 or class 4 or something) which was a bargain really. I ended up short of years because when I left the UK in the dark ages you only needed 30 years for a full pension and I had 32 years, so there was no point paying voluntary NICs. Then they put it up to 35 but by that time I'd been away for too long to ask to start paying voluntary contributions (I think that was it, there was some reason why I couldn't). Part of my rationale for taking a job back in the UK, apart from that I fancied the job, was to make up my NIC years and qualify for a full pension and also to qualify for an S1. Then one year in, Covid struck and that was the end of my job. However I had worked and paid in as an employee for just over one full tax year, I'd had to pay for the year before I came back, and because I hung about for another year in the UK waiting out Covid and doing a very small amount of freelance work, that gave me the third missing year, so BINGO.
Feb 9th 2022, 9:39 pm
#17
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,451
Re: Timing my move - tax
Pulaski Ah well that probably explains it, I was self employed - didn't realise that being self employed meant you got special VIP treatment from HMRC
I realise NICs aren't an income tax and yet it was HMRC that billed them and HMRC that took my query and quoted their rules at me in reply and tried to fine me for late payment. So maybe HMRC makes the NIC rules as well, who knows. (I put in a complaint to HMRC over the late payment fine and got the fine back plus compensation.)
It is good advice for peeps to consider paying voluntary NICs after they move if they haven't got enough years under their belt, I believe it works out cheaper than buying years back at a later stage, supposing you have that option.
In the end although I was annoyed at the time it turned a blessing in disguise that I had to pay NICs for a year when I was barely in the UK, because they charged me the self employed rate (can't remember what class they call it, is it class 2 or class 4 or something) which was a bargain really. I ended up short of years because when I left the UK in the dark ages you only needed 30 years for a full pension and I had 32 years, so there was no point paying voluntary NICs. Then they put it up to 35 but by that time I'd been away for too long to ask to start paying voluntary contributions (I think that was it, there was some reason why I couldn't). Part of my rationale for taking a job back in the UK, apart from that I fancied the job, was to make up my NIC years and qualify for a full pension and also to qualify for an S1. Then one year in, Covid struck and that was the end of my job. However I had worked and paid in as an employee for just over one full tax year, I'd had to pay for the year before I came back, and because I hung about for another year in the UK waiting out Covid and doing a very small amount of freelance work, that gave me the third missing year, so BINGO.
I realise NICs aren't an income tax and yet it was HMRC that billed them and HMRC that took my query and quoted their rules at me in reply and tried to fine me for late payment. So maybe HMRC makes the NIC rules as well, who knows. (I put in a complaint to HMRC over the late payment fine and got the fine back plus compensation.)
It is good advice for peeps to consider paying voluntary NICs after they move if they haven't got enough years under their belt, I believe it works out cheaper than buying years back at a later stage, supposing you have that option.
In the end although I was annoyed at the time it turned a blessing in disguise that I had to pay NICs for a year when I was barely in the UK, because they charged me the self employed rate (can't remember what class they call it, is it class 2 or class 4 or something) which was a bargain really. I ended up short of years because when I left the UK in the dark ages you only needed 30 years for a full pension and I had 32 years, so there was no point paying voluntary NICs. Then they put it up to 35 but by that time I'd been away for too long to ask to start paying voluntary contributions (I think that was it, there was some reason why I couldn't). Part of my rationale for taking a job back in the UK, apart from that I fancied the job, was to make up my NIC years and qualify for a full pension and also to qualify for an S1. Then one year in, Covid struck and that was the end of my job. However I had worked and paid in as an employee for just over one full tax year, I'd had to pay for the year before I came back, and because I hung about for another year in the UK waiting out Covid and doing a very small amount of freelance work, that gave me the third missing year, so BINGO.
Yeah, self-employed taxes in the UK are an utter minefield, and extremely complicated for "opening and closing years", (when you start or end a period of self employment) due to the peculiar way that HMRC calculates "this years tax bill" on "last year's income" if you're self employed, combined with the ability to pick your own accounting year end if you're self employed (I believe that is still the case), then you can have an utter pigs breakfast of a tax computation.
And it sounds like you paid some Class 2 NICs, which are an incredible bargain if you qualify to pay them, which I currently do!
If you live outside the UK having previously worked and paid NICs for at least three years in the UK, there are very few good reasons not to be paying voluntary contributions to get you up to 35 years and get yourself a full pension. In fact that is what the link at the bottom of my posts alludes to, that a Grauniad journalist was trawling BE and found my opinion on how good a deal voluntary NICs for expats are. 
