i was not really directing my comments at you LVC - every persons circumstances are different, i appreciate that

 

Fair enough hodgy0_2 but your generalisation of "Tax heavens just seem a lazy selfish cop out IMO", even as an opinion, is not justified and unwarranted ............... IMHO

 

even when they come back for NHS treatment

 

It may be, but I think some of us are finding it a bit uneasy that Tony is thinking in these capitalist terms with his individualistic stance. He has criticised many a people here for dreaming of sitting on their backside and making money of others' situations. He has even said that doctors shouldn't charge anyone anything for their service (well, I may be wrong, but that's the way it sounded/read to some of us). He supported his arguments with various references, and yes, some of his arguments sounded intellectually applicable in theory. But now he declares that he'd do something similar to what he opposed to? Not sure what to make of it.


If it were someone else, he would be quoting Social Darwinism to challenge them, whereas his act will be the Survival of the Fittest (not of the desperate) for all the right reasons??

Don't get me wrong, I have respect for the young man's efforts. I personally would agree with the Survival of the Fittest thingy, and I'd also call his act a product of the Actualising Tendency that our nicey-nicey Roger (1951) coined. However, I don't know what to think of him on his school of thought re. cut-throat economics. Clearly he has back-paddled or he'll provide arguments to contradict this.

 

Just to add:

Or, Tony could be just a wind-up merchant, and loves to get people going.

 

If they come back then the chances are that they are paying for family (wife and kids) to live in the UK or have a house rented out (rental tax payable in the UK) and usually as at some point they did work in the UK (and therefore paid income tax etc.) prior to going abroad or plan to come back to work in the UK after their tour has finished. So why shouldn't they take advantage of a health care system that they are/were/will be paying for? There's plenty of people in the UK who haven't ever nor ever will contribute to the NHS system who are more than happy to use it though.

From experience most lifer ex-pats would not choose the UK NHS system for treatment as they're plenty of better options in the world including the UK private system.

Note: A decent ex-pat package will include private health care

 

I'm sorry I've not read up on the Tony's autobiography and don't recall reading any of these posts - there's a lot of posts on here that don't interest me. This one does as it's something I've done and can relate to.

Whether it's a wind up or not or whether he does anything other than write and read about it is up to him but in contributing to this post my aim is to share what I have done and I find it difficult to accept statements which are clearly not based upon 1st hand experiences.

But each to their own. Some people prefer to moan and criticise rather than do anything about their situation. I got out of the UK 13 years ago ad prior to that did everything I could to set myself up for later on and now I'm sitting back and watching HMSUK slowly sinking - long live the revolution, lol

 

I think it's getting confused. There is a big difference between taking a job abroad in a country that allows one tax benefits and taking residency in a country in which you don't actually work but just want to avoid paying UK tax.

About 10 years ago I seriously considered doing a few years in the middle east to give me a financial head start. However the thought of being away from my family and friends meant I decided the money wasn't worth it.

 

fair enough - although you seem to be making quite a few assumptions

 

No, no autobiography or anything. We're just regulars that read enough here, LVC.

Your aim is understood, and your contribution to this thread has been good imo. You as well as Tony have done better for yourselves, and it's inspiring.

I appreciate anyone who is able to survive one way or the other in life, as long as it doesn't hurt others too much. It's impossible not to hurt anyone at all along the life for self-fulfilment (unless the self-fulfilment is achieved by not hurting anyone at all, of course), and we must accept that.

It's all about survival, and even making it to a step further to 'living life a bit better'- not mere survival by clutching to a straw in tsunami. Insatiable greed for wealth is another matter.

I haven't mentioned greed in relation to you or anyone else, I only mention it in generic sense.

 

Here's a challenge. Try and prevent just ONE thread turning into a **** waving contest.

It may be impossible...

 

I hate to **** on your parade Tony, well, actually I don't really but there are a few flaws in your plan

Legally, you'd be required to pay UK tax on the cash you brought back to the UK to buy your house. What you are planning is not tax avoidance, its tax evasion. Avoidance is legal, evasion is not.

So lets assume you don't tell HMRC and run with the evasion. Given that its not actually possible these days to turn up to your lawyers office with a suitcase full of cash to buy the house, you'll need to have the funds transferred via the banking system. Again, when the remitting bank shows up as "Overseas Banka de tax free income" its likely that under the anti money laundering and proceeds of crime act legislation you'll struggle to find agents that will facilitate the transaction without at the very least seeking further clarification from you on the source of the cash

Tax free income is all well and good, but the romantic notion of earning fortunes overseas and spending it back in the uk untaxed on large value transactions is, nowadays, just that.

There are convaluted ways of doing it involving setting up an overseas entitity to buy the asset but ultimately it will never be "your" house and that process has its own tax implications.

In other words, dream on

 

It's not money generated from selling cocaine but will be fully traceable to lawful foreign employement at a time when I was not a UK resident.

When I worked in Oz I wired about £50 grand back to my UK account just before I left. Surprisingly anti-terrorism never came around.

 

Its still taxable when you bring it back.

And you may also still be consodered UK resident, or domiciled here, irrespective of where you are working.

Was OZ tax free Tony?

 

I know about the statutory residence test.

Oz was obviously not tax free but that isn't the point.

 

I think that if I'd had kids with ex-wife no.1 then I wouldn't have gone TBH. But a messy divorce and no real strings helped me make the decision. However as I mentioned before we're talking about 20 years ago when things were, apparently, a lot different to now.


Cool - I've found life to be a particularly hard path in the early years and decided that I wanted out of the "rat race", " live to work" style existence. Hindsight is great, would I do it again - probably not now but timing was spot on, cash was tax free and plenty of it and the house prices were still low enough to ride the wave when they went up and down.

I wasn't greedy (I know you never said I was ) and got out when I'd earned enough to do what I planned. The curve is hyperbolic and you quickly arrive at a point where you can't save any more as your lifestyle starts costing too much. So cash in and move on

As an Estate Agent specialising in "prestigious properties" over here in Froggy land I see an awful lot of Caymen Island, Bahamas, Swiss, etc. accounts with the origins of the funds being anywhere from North Korea to Russia often passing through "trusts" and "offshore holding companies". From experience unless you're talking muti-millions then very few people from the government bodies are actually interested, £60k, £400k and even £1million for a "cash" purchase of property in Europe are not flagged as requiring further investigation unless the source is a known criminal. You have to state the name of the bank that transferred the funds for the purchase but it's history prior to that is not required. Nice tip: Use a currency conversion firm rather than a bank (pound sterling to euros/dollars/etc. or the other way) and then direct to the lawyer/official overseeing the purchase and you'd be surprised at how quickly the funds drop off the "radar"

 

I'd be interested to know in what way you feel the UK is sinking but France is thriving?

Thanks

 

 

They're both sinking but I've got my own life-raft already, lol

France is four times bigger than the UK with the roughly the same population and where I am is still nicely affluent to avoid all the "extras" that are moving into Western Europe to benefit from all those lovely hand-outs. Also important to remember that here in rural(ish) France we're already armed and surprisingly enough have fair less crime

Other than that..... less drug issues, better free schools, better health system, better quality roads, no road tax, cheaper insurance and general cost of living, quality of air, etc. etc. but don't tell anyone as I don't want it changing due to an influx of ex-pats, lol

 

Yeah, but apart from less drug issues, better free schools, better health system, better quality roads, no road tax, cheaper insurance and general cost of living, quality of air what has France got going for it?

The UK is in a mess, but most people will never realise it or even if they do won't admit it!

 

Actually it is the point. Very much so. Banks and Governments are far more collaberative on tax evasion than they ever used to be.

Good luck with the tax fraud tho

 

Great food and hot women speaking to many French women that come on horse riding tours out here in Croatia with a good friend of mine, (my place is also on his most popular route so they stop by every week in summer and should start staying with me soon) it's also very difficult for them to find guys in a lot of the big cities as it has become very fashionable for men to be either gay or bi-sexual and all the ones I have spoken to don't want to be involved with bi-sexual men, so it's a bit of a free for all if your straight, my pal regularly gets his brains bonked out, can't say I blame him some of them are stunning.

Can you confirm LVC? I know your rural so may not see it much but I was quite surprised by it, apparently Belgium is going the same way too.

 

How does that come up in a conversation?

I think France is great, good food, sophisticated culture, sexy women . I don't mean 'dirty' women 'cos in France people make an effort to be alluring and fashionable, the 'art of seduction'. Romance culture is very different than anglo-saxon culture.

My French is rubbish though so I'd struggle.

 

Might be different in France mate, but I deal with UK clearing banks on a daily basis and the work from them is quite different.

Whatever way you look at it, Tony is discussing illegally evading tax. To the point that back in the day, our old webmaster De Banke would have shat himself and probably closed the thread

Perhaps now is not the time to be planning tax evasion

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-government-hmrc-crack-down-secret-bank-account-tax-avoidance-evasion-1437620

 

confirmed

 

No I've been discussing ways to avoid tax on foreign earnings.

 

And that makes him worse than landlords!

 

Hasn't he fooked off yet?

 

Once they've had a few glasses of the local muscat you'd be surprised what they come up with, It's known for making women horny as hell.

I used to go to Le touquet quite a bit a few years ago and have a pal that lives not too far from there in a little village, came close to buying a Chateau out there before I got this place but changed my mind when I came here for a holiday as it was more doable and close to the sea which I love too, but agree with all the above.

If you think French is difficult you should try dealing with Croatian and then add local dialects that change within a few kilometres, with nowhere to learn it but in that place. My friends from Zagreb can't understand a word when I speak to my neighbour.

 

We often contemplate emigrating to France. Speak the lingo, love the lifestyle and attitude to life yet they still manage to do very well in all sorts of industries.