| liddelljohn wrote: |
| What if you have an offshore LTD company ???? or a subsidary company or use and umbrella company ???? |
The legislation does not say.... '
Must be UK Limited Company', or at least I can find no reference to that online and I don't expect to either.
I would suggest any limited company should be acceptable as long as you can produce:
a) Certificate of incorporation
b) Certificate of Employers liability insurance. (A non UK limited company can get this insurance.)
There
may be an exception to that logic if HMRC sees fit to believe that your ltd co is registered in a tax haven and you are also not resident in that country and therefore pay no taxes. You might need to take tax advice form a CA on that.
Here are two real life examples that work:
1) When living in Portugal I previously operated under our own Portuguese Ltd Co. We had three employees and carried employers liability insurance underwritten by Lloyds of London. We paid corporation tax and employee (PAYE) taxes in Portugal, which is part of the EU. That company is now closed.
2) Now, living in BC, Canada, I am an employee of my limited company (50% shareholder) incorporated in BC, Canada. We have two employees and carry employers liability insurance underwritten by Lloyds of London. All earnings go into our business account. We pay ourselves a monthly salary. We pay corporation tax and employee (PAYE) taxes to CRA in Canada. Canada and the UK have reciprocal tax agreements. That seems to tick all the boxes.
What I will suggest is the writing is on the wall for all those that currently do not pay any tax on their worldwide income. If you are a UK citizen, work in the North Sea through a UK agency and are not registered as permanent resident in another country (like living on visitors visa's), nor pay income tax there, you are likely to be chased down by HMRC at some point. When I lived in Asia it used to seem good enough if you simply met the UK ex-pat requirements and did not reside in the UK, so did not need to file a tax return to HMRC and at the same time paid no taxes in the country you lived in. I seem to get the feeling that this is no longer good enough. I know that USA and Canadian citizens have to declare worldwide income no matter where they live. I don't see the UK being that far behind in that respect.
If you are an employee of any company (yours or someone else's) and pay taxes and National insurance (or the NIC equivalent in your country of residence) then you should be good. If you are not an employee of any company and work in the North Sea and pay no taxes anywhere, nor make an annual tax return anywhere, then you may be in for a surprise at some point in the near future.
It will all end in tears unless you take pre-emptive steps and stay ahead of the game.
SED is another matter.
