| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:sleeping in the park | |
| Posted by: | Michael Daley | |
| Date/Time: | 24/09/06 22:00:00 |
| This is not an area in which I am expert, but the UK is unusual in distinguishing between someone who is merely "resident" and someone who is "domiciled". The bottom line is the latter pay taxes on everything while the former (ordinarily resident but not domiciled) have the privilege of paying taxes on only that remitted to the UK. Accordingly many, who largely by gift of birth, are not domiciled here, can arrange their affairs such that their income is paid into a tax haven and pay UK tax only on what is subsequently remitted to a UK bank account. This is usually achieved by either the job being "split" between countries with a proportion being deemed to be undertaken overseas, or by income derived by previous earnings (or income on any capital obtained before arriving in the UK) being treated as offshore income (and not UK taxable). By these means two people doing exactly the same job at the same UK firm can receive different amounts of net disposable income. Successive governments (in particular the current!) have allowed this anomaly to be perpetuated and it does of course create a "them and "us" culture that allows certain foreigners to live here for many years without paying tax on anything but the exact amount they need to pay their own living expenses. I am very much in favour of the law being changed but Gordon Brown, who could change things, clearly believes otherwise. |