I have been working for nearly a year now based in CH.

I have done all the official things here so now all my permit and license and insurance is all done here etc.

I am still registered self employed in the UK.

I still have things like my UK phone contract and bank account, and my parent's address.

I am still paying NI monthly from my UK bank account.

I periodically transfer money to my UK account to pay for these things (yet it still seems to be always overdrawn!!!).

I have no plans to work back in the UK. But at the same time my work is specialist and involves travel, and i have nothing to tie me down anywhere, so if a job came up that's good i would take it (unlikely though).

I just did my tax return for last year where i owe nothing because i never had enough work before coming here!

I assume that if i do nothing they will ask me to do a tax return next year?

Should I do anything official in the UK to say i am "non-resident"? What are the pros and cons?

I guess I don't need to be paying NI? But it's only a small amount a month....

I actually find that my phone bill in the UK is actually cheaper than getting a proper CH contract for the occasional text! And i still use it outside CH.

But transferring money back to the UK is silly. Its expensive and I don't want to give money to the banks!

To stop being taxed in the UK you should complete a P85

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/p85_p85s.htm

You normally can voluntarily pay NI in order to make sure you get your state pension - not sure if filling in the P85 will stop that you from being able to do that though.

[QUOTE=suzybg;1064521]To stop being taxed in the UK you should complete a P85

I had the same question so I called the tax office before I left.

This is the form to fill out if you want to let the UK tax man know you are not a UK resident and for me this is important because I need them to know I am Non-Resident for tax purposes. To achieve that status you also have to meet the rules for Non residency like the 90 day rule etc...

I am sure there are masses of posts on here about this but if you dont have UK income and you fill in this form you will not have to complete a tax return any more.

If you dont comply to the rules of non-residency and have not filled in this form the UK tax man may be interested in your income so get some advice.

Bruster

Perhaps I've misunderstood, but I thought that wasn't necessary if you're working, as the EU/EU-ish countries have reciprocal crediting arrangements - you'll be paying into the equivalent to NI here, and therefore receiving a 'stamp' for 2010 or whatever year when it comes to assessing payments at retirement.

I'm not working, but reserving judgement on top-up payments. Now that you only need a minimum of 30 years for a full pension, there's no point me overpaying at this stage; I already have 15 years of credits and am significantly more than 15 years from the payment date! I'll review it when I'm 52.

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