Southcote

Did you give them dates ?

jimf

Yes we gave them the date we left the UK which was about 3 months previously. ie we had received 3 monthly payments before we let them know. Actually we wrote to them first and they sent a form which we completed and returned.

jimf

It's taken 8 months but they have demanded the money back now.

jimf

Just out of interest has anyone successfully claimed they were "ordinarily resident" in the UK for child benefit purposes when they were in Canada? Keeping a house in the UK may leave this possibility open for a time at least.

Aviator

You cannot be ordinarily resident in more than one country. If you live in Canada, CRA may have something to say about where you are deemed resident. Owning a house overseas is not sufficient. There are plenty of wealthy British expats claiming to not be ordinarily resident with more ties than that.

You may want to think that one out very carefully.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...UK-taxman.html

jimf

For the money involved its probably not worth the hassle and with a bit of luck the Canadian Child Benefit will come on stream this month so we will just have to put up with a gap of 12 months or so with no benefit from either country.

I work in Canada and pay tax here so for me the options are limited. However, mrs jimf doesn't work here so in theory might choose to claim to be ordinarily resident in the UK. However, I wouldn't wish to loose the spouse personal allowance here. Any gain on CHB would probably be offset by a loss here.

I posed the question out of curiousity really. If others had successfully tried this approach I might investigate further but I wouldn't want to be taking the risk of doing something too novel.

From the article it seems the HMRC is taken a new line on interpretation of the guidance to pusue the very wealthy. Whether anyone can truly be said to have cut all ties with the UK seems doubtful. What consitutes cutting all ties - can you visit the UK, telephone someone in the UK, access a UK website without being deemed to have retained a tie with the UK? In theory nearly anyone living overseas could be liable.

Aviator

For how much is involved I would not even go there. If CRA or HMRC (worse both) come after you then the loss of the CTB would have seemed a paltry price to pay. If it was doable many would be doing it. If they are, they won't be about to announce it to the world.