Working in Ireland for a UK company

Hal1

Mods, I posted this question in the Accountancy forum, but I think my question is relevent to both forums.

> I started working for a UK company recently but will be based here in Ireland. I spoke with the accountant in the job and he told me that because I don't have a national insurance number and am not a resident in the UK I won't be on the UK tax system and will have to sort out my own tax. They took a copy of my p45. Does anyone know the proceedure involved and will I need to hire an accountant to sort out my tax? any advise would be greatly appreciated.

IsThatSo?

You won't need an accountant, they just mean you will be self assessed rather than PAYE here or under the UK tax system. Form 11E is the one you will need. You will still get your normal tax credits and allowances etc, you just pay tax once a year in a lump sum instead of each payslip.

My DH is self assessed as in a similiar situation as yourself. We just do the tax return every year. The tax return for a year, say 2008, must be in by 31st October 2009, with the balance of the tax for 2008 and preliminary tax for 2009. The balance of tax for 2009 will be submitted with that tax return then before Oct 31st 2010, along with preliminary tax for 2010.

Basically, you pay off the previous year and a big % of the present year. This works well, its just a bit costly the first year as you have to pay all the tax for the previous year and the prelim tax for present year at once. What we do is save some money from each pay packet and put it in a seperate account to look after the tax bill

Shout if you have any questions

Hal1

That doesn't sound too bad, had myself worried silly . So, I declare my tax at the end of October then. Is it always that date and will I have to notify them in the mean time etc. By tax office you mean the revenue office? thanks for the replys.

IsThatSo?

Yep, revenue office.

If you send in the tax form (to the Limerick office for self assessed people) before the end of August they will work out the tax liability for you. We find this very handy. A couple of times we waited till the end of October and forgot some levy or other and ended up having to pay more later.

They supposedly will have the figure for you to pay by the deadline and this always worked for us until this year. This year we sent our tax form in in July and still have not gotten the figure that was due last October We had to guess and pay but if we overpaid we will get a refund so no worries really.

You can submit the form online (which gives you an extra month, till end November) but we found that very complicated, unless they have simplified it over the last few years.

I would ring or drop into your local tax office if you have been PAYE up until now and just advise them of your new job and that you will be self assessed. This will (hopefully) stop you getting a letter demanding a tax return, as happened to us one year. There was a threat of penalties and legal action in it, I nearly freaked. The girl just laughed when I rang her and there was no problem, but I got a fright all the same.

You do not have to submit receipts/payslips with the return but you do have to keep them for 6 years (I believe) so we bought an accordian file and as stuff comes in we just file it in the relevant pocket and therefore if we do ever get audited we can pick it out in a second. We have kept everything for the last 10 years or so, just in case.

These are all just little tips as to what we found worked for us and made it all just that little be easier. Take or leave them as you wish:)

Hal1

Thanks for that explanation, it would have taken me an age to decipher the revenues web site.

youtoome

IsThatSo gave some great advise. The other thing to remember is what you can claim for to reduce your tax. This depends on your work what you can claim for. There are companies out there who will help you (that are not accountants so dont cost alot). If you want more info on these let me know.

Good luck.

swanvill

Quote - 'You do not have to submit receipts/payslips with the return but you do have to keep them for 6 years (I believe) so we bought an accordian file and as stuff comes in we just file it in the relevant pocket and therefore if we do ever get audited we can pick it out in a second. We have kept everything for the last 10 years or so, just in case.'

Hi, it is just a small point but you have to retain records for seven years from your last correct return. So if you decided to defraud the revenue and claimed some dodgy expenses in the last three years (say 2007,2006 & 2005) then you have to have all your information going back to 1998.