nun

Your UK personal allowance has nothing to do with how you are taxed. You declared Moldovan taxable income and juts get taxed according yo their rules. Your Moldovan taxable income seems to be UK basic state pension and interest, I think the NHS pension might be classed as Government service and so only taxable in the UK.

I advise you to get professional help for the first year so you can see how it's done.

ukthesis

As I've said before, the Moldovan tax system is something I am happy to deal with if and when they approach me. (The chances are that they won't even ask - I have friends who live there who don't know what a tax return is, really). Furthermore, the taxes I will pay on my income (see my previous email) would be in any case VERY low in Moldova (see my email on tax bands in Moldova). So with respect to getting tax advice on the Moldovan end, it would cost me a lot more than I would save.

I am going to phone the Revenue up again when I get back from my next trip to Moldova to ask them about points raised with respect to the form SA 109 and this DT - International (neither of which they previously mentioned). At the end of the day, it's what they say that will count.

I suspect that because my tax affairs are so simple, a lot of these issues are simply not relevant. I think you are really over complicating things. The HMRC guy said that as self-assessment, all that needs to happen is that I go over there (and do not bother filling out that R85) and each year I fill out online the self assessment form. Simple as.

nun

How you choose to deal with the Moldovan tax system is up to you.

theOAP

A throwaway comment from the peanut gallery after following posts on this thread.

That's a very bold statement. Moldova tax reporting compliance and requirements may be lax, and you may have no problems at all. The experiences of others don't necessarily apply since their situations may be entirely different to yours.

But, I would suggest that if the Moldovan authorities were inclined take an interest in your tax affairs, you have no idea how complicated a situation could become, and HMRC will be of no help if you are required to deal with Moldovan authorities.

Sorry for the intrusion, back to your discussion.....

nun

Your situation is quite simple, but I have described what I think you need to do to comply with your cross border tax obligations. The forms and use of the tax treaty is relevant to your situation.

HMRC are not responsible for you doing your taxes correctly and I would be surprised if someone sat down with you and went over what bits of your income are Moldovan taxable or UK taxable under the treaty and the two domestic codes. If you expect answers to even the simplest cross border tax questions you will probably not be satisfied. This is not surprising as knowledge of the UK/Moldovan tax treaty is probably not common......it's up to you to gain that knowledge yourself or to pay someone to do it for you.

If the Moldovan system "works" in such a way that you don't have to pay tax on Moldovan income, it is even more important for you to understand exactly which bits of income you can eliminate from UK tax. Tax evasion might well be the norm in Moldova, but I have given you a road map to how cross border taxation generally works and in the application of a tax treaty....that might well be modified by local law and custom.

I believe we started this discussion with a statement from HMRC that you would be taxed on all your UK source income. You are now aware that the only income that will be taxed in the UK is your UK Government pension (probably NHS) and interest at a maximum of 5%. I have told you how to claim exemption from UK tax under the treaty with DT-Individual and you can file an R105 to have your UK bank interest paid gross and then pay the required UK tax on it when you file your UK self assessment.