Blinkycat

Yet another one - I am in my mid 40s in quite a senior job in the UK earning almost £60k - have been offered a government-type admin job in Abu Dhabi for 42k aed pm, including everything (school included at 40k p/a)
I feel that they have lowballed me massively for this role after what the recruitment agent initially promised, and the company has refused to budge in any way on the salary.
My wife doesn't really want to come given the living costs as she'd have to give up her job - and we have two young kids. Just seeking advice really if anyone was in a similar situation of the ends not really justifying the means but still a decent potential salary bump for a year or two...

Trailing_Hubby

I don't think we'd move for that and we don't have kids. Rentals are very toppy at the moment so you would be spending a fair chunk on living costs. Depends on your attitude to it I guess - if you are happy with hunkering down in a bog standard place and saving hard then it is worth the chunk of money you go back with. If you want the brunches and the nice place it would impact your savings.
I hear wages are on the way down compared to KSA right now, which is I guess why they wouldn't budge.

Discovery Bullet

Nah, that's average Joe money and whilst I'm referring to Dubai in my comments - they're all struggling now and are just here pretending the lifestyle is worth it.
Rents are insanely expensive and that cash with two school fees is;

42,000
Rent - 15,000 (don't know AD rents but 180k annually gets you a cereal box townhouse in middle of nowhere for Dubai).
Schooling - 8,000 (assuming two at primary, rough price)
Bills - 2,000
Food - 3,000 (guessing)
Car - 4,500 (one half decent, one shit)

Leaves you 9,500 for beer, whores and other essentials.

I mean, on paper it's 2k GBP, but when you want to save some money out of it, and have a life - you don't really get to do both.
Brunch out is going to cost you a grand without trying, that twice plus some kids events and kits and clothes and books - you'll have not a lot left to save each month.

csdf

40k annual schooling allowance (assuming it's per child) will just about cover nursery, but you will start to need to top up by the time they get to year 1, assuming you go to one of the major British schools (BSAK, Brighton, BISAD, Cranleigh). For some of those schools, fees could be up to double the 40k allowance.
Does your salary include housing allowance (it sounds like that). I'd say that's not a very attractive offer for someone in their mid-40s. I'd be looking for something in the 50+ range at the least.

Blinkycat

Thanks all - I appreciate the feedback - the overall pay would be more than three times my current in the UK so maybe best to work there for a year and leave the family at home to avoid housing and schooling costs

UKMS

If you are only looking at it for a year then take some advice around your UK tax obligations/status , if you move mid tax year HMRC may come knocking for a slice, you are not tax free as soon as you step off the plane depending on circumstances and time of year. Setup costs, 1 year with no pension in the UK, missed NI contributions for the year. There is a lot to be considered for just a year. Whatever your spreadsheet says for your projected costs add at least 15% for things you have overlooked or over spend.

csdf

If you leave your family behind you also have to be very careful about nights spent back in the UK and nights spent in a family home as you could find yourself judged to be resident for tax purposes even if you live in the UAE

Blinkycat

Thanks for all the tax advice hadn’t thought of that - is there a website where I can see uk allowances? Thx

UKMS

https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence


There is a tool on here to determine your residency and other good info about working outside the UK and tax.

My advice would be to seek some professional help.

Trailing_Hubby

It's more the ties and timing rather than allowances. You'll need to stay out an entire tax year to benefit from split year treatment = i.e If you leave in March 2024 and go back May 2025 your foreign income won't be taxed. If you left June 2024 and came back May 2025 you'll be taxed on everything. Link is posted below, it's pretty straightforward. Get advice though if you aren't clear.

csdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-test-srt-rdr3 is a good place to start. Ideally you'd want to qualify for an automatic overseas test, but that won't happen likely in your first year. Then you have to go through the sufficient ties and make sure you don't have too many so that you become UK resident for tax purposes. Depending on which part of the tax year you leave, even a single tie could make you deemed to be resident in the UK for tax purposes. A tie can be something as simple as having children who you support attending school in the UK. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...asis/rdrm11500
Make sure to get formal advice if you are not confident navigating these rules yourself.

Ilovegregggs

I've crunched some numbers this evening as I was approached for a job in AD also, and I keep on coming to the princely sum of just about 40k monthly expenditure (family of 4) with kids in primary school. Al Raha looks a bit rundown, but the houses seemed quite spacious and I came across some chatter about the place - close to where I'd possibly be working also. If a package includes housing, car allowance, and school fees this would be a lot lower. Numbers are what I managed to deduce from previous posts on here and what I found elsewhere on the internet. Perhaps someone in AD might be able to verify how realistic the figures are.

That figure consists of the following monthly outgoings:
2 cars (a Hyundai kona & VW tiguan) - 6000
4 bed villa with a pool in Al Raha - 17500
utility bills - 3500
internet/tv package - 500
mobile phone - 500
School (BSAK/RIS) - 9200
Groceries - 3500

csdf

It''s going to be a bit family-dependent, but here's some of our household (2 adults, 3 children) monthly stats from last year:
2 cars (both fully owned, so this is just fuel and maintenance): 1800 dhs
Household stuff (furniture, a/c vent cleaning, odd jobs): 3000 dhs
Maid: 3500 dhs
Phones/internet: 1500 dhs
Rent: 20,000 dhs
Utilities: 3,600 dhs
Children (3x - primary school fees + play dates, clothes etc): 16,000 dhs
Eating out (wife and I eat out maybe twice a month, rest is family meals, lunches at work, breakfast coffee etc): 3,000 dhs
Where we differ most from your estimate is grocery bills, which can run 3x higher than your figure.

Ilovegregggs

Interesting on the grocery front, it was a stab in the dark. Currently paying 10 quid for a tube of toothpaste in KSA, guess it's not that different in the UAE. Derived the number from a fairly basic weekly shop..anemic seemingly. Thanks for the input.

Good to get some updates related to the UAE and not just Saudi.

UKMS

Running a pool may well notch up your utilites depending on how efficient (old) it is, toothpaste is a bit cheaper though