CharlotteAppleton

Hello,

I'm returning to the UK in a couple of months. I have been living in Belgium just under 5 and a half years and was wondering whether I will be trouble with the taxes. I can't see this as being a problem since I haven't lived in the UK therefore I shouldn't have to pay taxes for a country I don't live in. But I don't want to return to find I have thousands of pounds on my head.

Any help is appreciated!

Thank you in Advance,

Charlotte Appleton.

Editha

Why do you think you'd be liable for taxes?

CharlotteAppleton

I don't know, I'm just trying to make sure everything is sorted before I move from here and so everything is okay for when I move back. I was in college the year before I left so I don't think I have anything to pay. But I didn't actually notify anyone that I was leaving the country before I left. It was kind of a "Bonnie and Clyde" moment I guess you could call it. So because of that I hope I'm not liable for taxes in the last 5 and a half years.

Editha

I'm confident that you won't be liable for tax on anything you earned while resident abroad.

It would be a good idea for you to get a statement of your national insurance contributions and how much you'd need to pay to catch up. If you've only been in college or working abroad since you were 18, then your contribution record is probably limited to any full time work you had in your college vacations. You may be missing as much as 7 years contributions. It would be a good idea to catch up if you can, since otherwise you will miss out on a full state pension.

mikemike

if you have investments you may wish to consider their value against disposal prior to return unless tax on investments is higher in Belgium. This is purely a capital gains tax position as opposed to income tax.

Novocastrian

That's actually inaccurate. I was surprised to learn when I got my pension estimate from Newcastle, that at least back then, you were credited with NI contributions for every year after the age of 18 that you spent in full time education in the UK.

In my case that was a further 7 years.

Editha

Wow!. I don't think I was (also 7 years). How would they know you were in FT ed?

Editha

This is the list of situation when you can be credited with NI. Full time education is not one of them:
https://www.gov.uk/national-insuranc...ts/eligibility

I think you are wrong Novo.

yellowroom

Me too, my estimate included a total number of years that meant I must have been automatically credited for my time as a student. I don't know how that happened as I don't recall filling any forms in, but I'm not complaining. Maybe as a consequence of my grant applications (yes I'm that old).

It wouldn't surprise me if that has changed now, just another way of making life even harder for today's students. I know that the age I expect to receive the state pension has already shifted 7 years since I graduated, feels like it's an ever moving target.

Editha

If you are female, you got credited a number of years (because you are 'that old'). It was a catch up for women who were carers. The assumption was that the missing years were for caring for children, not studying for a further degree.

Would one of you like to actually give chapter and verse on this, because I still think you are wrong?

Sally Redux

I think it's for years in receipt of child benefit.

Giantaxe

I got credit for the years I was at university and I'm definitely not female! But it was a long time ago and the link you provided clearly excludes full time further education from being a situation that you can now get credit for. So presumably this was changed at some point, perhaps when they changed the years required for a "full" pension from 45 to 30 years?

Novocastrian

I requested a preliminary pension estimate from Newcastle about 2 years ago. I'm not sure I could still find the paperwork but I'll be applying for said pension around Christmas time this year. The estimate was based on 7 more years of contributions that I have actually made. Those seven years can only have been for the 7 years I spent getting my degrees in the UK between 1968 and 1975.

Editha

That makes sense.

If you lot got credit, then I must have done too! But I don't remember that. How did they know we were at uni? Other credits have to be applied for, or the notification is from other government records, e.g. child benefit as Sally says.

Either way, it seems clear that it is no longer the case, so the OP should check her contribution record and consider whether she should try to catch up, though if she is still under 30 she has plenty of time left in which to get 35 years contribs, particularly since by the time she retires, the retirement age will probably be 90!

Novocastrian

Editha, I've just been a-googling and it appears that there's another plausible explanation for my additional 7 years, namely EU harmonization.

It's possible that the hyper-efficient EU bureaucracy has stealthily and without input from me, credited my 7 years working in Germany between 1986 and 1993 to my UK NI account.

I'm now wondering whether the other posters who report getting credit for higher education ever worked elsewhere in the EU (after the UK joined in).