Mel Lofts

The UK budget is changing the rules for tax that is applied to non UK assets and earnings - link here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024-non-uk-domiciled-individuals-policy-summary/spring-budget-2024-non-uk-domiciled-individuals-policy-summary  I am wondering how these new rules will affect us Brits living permanently in Australia. Whilst it is clear that we live in Australia so are not resident for UK tax income tax purposes, it is not so clear as far as inheritance tax is concerned. The old rules were that you were classed as domiciled in the UK if your father was born in the UK. You could choose to be non-domiciled by choosing another country of domicile e.g. Australia. HMRC would not recognise that domicile of choice unless you met specific criteria - some of which is objective e.g. need to be non resident for a number of years in the last 20, some are subjective e.g. how many ties you have to the UK such as members of social clubs. This was not concrete and was at HMRC discretion at the time of death. The upshot of this is that anyone classed as UK domiciled would be subject to inheritance tax at 40% on any GLOBAL assets worth more than 325000 GBP per a single person or 650000 GBP for a married couple. This has to be paid within 6 months of death. Now the new rules seem to be anyone coming into the UK that is there for 4 years is subject to being domiciled. Obviously we aren't in the UK but that rule of x numbers of years being removed so where does that leave us. Most people would think oh that's ok we don't have more than 650000 GBP between us but don't forget the UK will see that as your Aus home plus your Aus super plus any savings or other assets you have regardless of where they are located. Even getting good financial advice is going to be tricky as it's such a specialist area and it will be the little guys that get penalised the most as they will have just over the limits and not be able to afford financial wizards and trusts like the super rich. Anyone on here with financial wizardry have any ideas?        

On 03/06/2023 at 16:09, Marisawright said:

I did some Googling and so far, I think Barclays is the only bank doing this.  

UK banks are extremely strict about proof of UK address when opening a new account and I know that's due to UK banking legislation, not a choice by the banks.  However it seems Barclays is the only one that's not allowing you to keep your bank account once overseas, and I'm not aware of any good reason for their attitude.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/important-information/living-outside-the-uk/

Sadly no. I got a reply from someone on a Facebook group that received a letter from Barclays, and they just so happened to be visiting the UK shortly afterwards. They said that they went to every single bank in the high street and they were told that they were no longer opening accounts for non-residents and they will soon be closing existing ones. 

Hi All,

Barclays have sent out letters to all Australian account holders that have any non UK address on their accounts. They have notified account holders that the account must be closed as they will no longer service non UK account holders. Just wondering what the options are for anyone with investments still in the UK and or state pension payments. It's a big pain for us as we have rental income and costs. Looked at opening a new expat account but all of them require you to invest 50k GBP or have a salary of 100k GBP and have extortionate fees. Tried to change address online to a UK relatives but it won't let me change the country without calling them and providing proof of address. What is anyone else considering?