Financially better off in uk????
 

Hi there. We are new to this forum. For some time we have debating whether to grab an opportunity of moving in massachusetts. We toyed with the idea 20 years ago but ended up starting a family. We can’t complain at all with where we live and have a large (USA sized family) home in the country which we have renovated and made a profit on. Of course 40pc income tax isn’t welcome but even still, I have a feeling we might be financially better off staying put. That aside, moving to USA wouldn’t be for financial reasons, it would be wanting to try something new, loving the area and wanting a fresh start. However a financial loss is unviable.

Once we deal with staying in touch with family and friends (and the emotional separation), the little trivial differences which we will accustom our selves to. The biggest hurdle I think will be a financial long term loss and I am wondering whether someone could perhaps verify I’m not going mad with my line of thought (from what I have researched). I have however only just started with my research and I don’t get too clouded with dreams.

So for us we will earn more in the USA and income tax will be lower. However
the long term profits seem (from what I have worked out) far far less favourable given that the yearly salary gain will be eaten up with property tax, state taxes and family health insurance. This is where I fear we will be stung. For us over a 20 year period we will be paying back over $200k in property tax and if we wanted to sell (at the same value just for calculation) $60k on capital gains tax. Compare this to uk and we would be keeping far more profit (once you’ve dealt with getting around inheritance tax)Has anyone else made these calculations and found out they are better staying put! Sadly

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

Hi, welcome to BE.

I think that's a bit of a 'piece of string' question, it will depend on how much of a salary increase you'll get, what you currently spend on your living costs in the UK and where you're coming from and going to in MA. If you can give people more info then those in MA might be able to help.

If it helps at all, we're in a similar situation - large house in the UK (we'll rent it, we're not going permanently), and moving to Boston. We'll be in a much smaller house there as housing is soooooo much more expensive. But ours is an expat deal, so most things paid for, and I don't think financially we could do it if it wasn't. My husband gets a 'cost of living adjustment' and that's a 35% increase, so that's what they think it will cost us more to live in the US.

What visa will you be on, will you both be able to work or reliant on one salary? And will you have health insurance provided, or have to fund it all yourself? If the latter, how many of you in the family?

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

What visa?

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

hi. Thanks for your reply. Apologies. Didn’t want to overload a question with too many what ifs etc. Plus I’ve just started to really break down the nitty gritty aspects so needed to make a start

For us the intention would be (if it were not complicated) to gain residency. This would then raise the question of whether we would be financially worse off long term etc. The property tax and then paying capital gains on a primary residence makes us cringe etc. Work aspects tho my husbands wouldn’t have issues in gaining an initial visa as an it consultant. I’m in the beauty industry. I haven’t fully looked at the visa lengths etc but he would be permanent and myself self employed. We decided to think about the financial long term aspects first before we got excited and went off on a dream etc. We are hopefully going to ma next year for two weeks. I suppose we would then perhaps arrange a meeting with an accountant at another date to do some sums for us.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

thank you for your reply. I’m glad you’ve settled but am sorry to hear about your depression. It is a worry for me to if we would feel the same. I’m sure it goes through everyone’s minds. If we were to make it happen it would be within the next two years so the timing works. Our eldest would possibly stay at uni at home unless she could transfer for her final year. Our middle one would be starting uni and our youngest would need to complete high school (and possibly some overseas math and English gcse) to replace her GCSEs here.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

Does he already have a sponsoring employer and job offer then? If so, which visa are they getting for him? Not all will allow you to work, so if you're going to be reliant on two incomes that could be a deal breaker.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

thank you. I’ve just replied to similar above. I’m really in the preliminary stages. He works for an international company and hypothetically wouldn’t have a problem finding work. He is the main income. I would hope that I would be able to work too. I’ve looked into licenses etc for myself (I’m an educator) but didn’t want to get my hopes up so we jumped to long term financial gain to either talk ourselves out of it or to plough on. I hope I would be able to gain a visa working self employed but it isn’t an Avenue I’ve explored yet. there’s a lot of research to do for many things.

Presuming hypothetically all these issues are irrelevant it was the long term aspects of loosing money on property I was wondering about. Whether I’ve got it correct that you loose so much on owning and selling a property (above a certain threshold and property tax is 3 times your council tax) etc in comparison to the uk. Thanks for your reply

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

To be honest, I'd worry about the visas first, that's likely to be your sticking point if he's an IT consultant, but it will depend on his education level and how specialist his skills are. I've also just seen you have older teenage children, so they may not be able to get a visa as well depending on when you go and their ages, another thing to consider.

If he can transfer with his employer then you could work as well which would help (if he was on some other visas you couldn't), have they offered to transfer him? If so is there any other option for location other than MA? Money will go a lot further elsewhere.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

It's not a question of "not having a problem finding work' Unless he has a work visa sponsored by his employer - such as an L-1 visa - then you cannot move to the US. One does not move, find work, and then get the visa.
I find it difficult to understand how you can work out whether or not you would be financially better off in US or UK, when you do not have an initial income in the US to work with.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

thank you so much for your help and replies. There so much to cover and research isn’t there. Not all info I can get from google and you go around in circles. I suppose we wanted to jump ahead at the “what If we wanted to stay” prospects as it would be the aim. We didn’t want to get too carried away and get our hopes up. We would rather not have the experience and upheaval then.

okay so visa side of things for myself. From what I’ve read there seems to be a grey area regarding being self employed. I have thousands of pounds worth of products which (from what I have read about shipping) I cannot take with me. This would then mean I would have to repurchase everything whilst over there. I am a brand ambassador here so hopefully that would carry over. Not sure if it would help with sponsorship. I couldn’t bear not working as I love what I do. This is another deciding factor. If I couldn’t work or could only get a 1 year visa then it would be pointless.

My husband is niche and is desirable so don’t have to worry from his aspect.


Could you let me know what are the difficulties with children’s visas please? I automatically assumed youngest would be able to transfer to high school. Middle one is studying law (and other subjects) and wishes to do so at uni.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

You and your children will get visas with your husband’s. Whether you can work will very much depend on what type of visa he gets.

If your children are not UK residents, they may be subject to international uni fees in the UK.

Where will your eldest be applying to uni. US unis are very expensive and the courses generally take longer than the US. An undergrad is usually 4 years. A UK solicitor is not qualified to practice law in the US and I assume it is vice versa. I suggest you look into how long it would take to obtain a US law degree, if he wishes to attend a US uni.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

thank you. Ah I see. I wasn’t aware of how his visa would affect mine etc.

I was just looking at fees funnily enough and was aware of the differences in law etc (this would be dependant upon staying and her finding a job etc). We would need to stay 4 years due to youngest finishing high school (if this is at all possible (once again no doubt visas)). The timing has to work. Thank you. At this stage it’s all very preliminary and so many aspects to cover so we don’t get hopes up or ditch the idea . Thanks for your help

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

My husband is niche and is desirable so don’t have to worry from his aspect.

Well , yes you do need to 'worry from his aspect; IF your husband's current company is intending to transfer him on an L-1 visa, then YOU would be able to work.
If he needed to get a new job, then he would move under an H-1B and you would NOT be able to work.
There is no 1 year visa - you are either eligible to work or you are not.
While I understand you want to work out all the aspects of moving to US, determining whether your husband is going to be sponsored by his company is the first thing you should be looking at.

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

I just meant that if they were too old they wouldn't be able to get visas, you mention your eldest doing last year of uni, so depending on age may not be able to be a dependent on your husband's visa app. If you want them all to get visas as well, you'll need to make sure you apply before they 'age out'. Obviously not relevant if the eldest wants to stay in the UK anyway (and the middle one, depending on how long it takes - if your husband needs a sponsoring employer rather than being transferred and goes on a H1-B visa, it wouldn't be quick).

Re: Financially better off in uk????
 

Lovely. Many thanks. Once again google talking about visas being of 1 year duration.

If all this came to fruition and hypothetically worked out it brings us back to our original question (which is why we wanted to rule out going to the USA) - Long term financial property loss of a USA primary residence against the uk equivalent etc. It was a big jump of 20 years I know but we can’t get our head around property tax would be £12-13k a year its staggering.