Organising
your Tax and Financial affairs
Global K specialises in providing a full range of tax planning and
administration services to contractors moving overseas. Providing the
best tax and financial advice to any individual taking up employment
overseas is not a standard service provided by the average high street
accountant or tax adviser.
When
you first contract overseas, one of the most important decisions you will
make is how to organise your tax and financial affairs. You are unlikely to
be offered, or to want, the option of becoming a permanent employee of the
foreign employer. Therefore you will not be accounting for any applicable
payroll tax and social security deductions at source.
This means that, somehow or another, you will be responsible for making
sure you calculate and account for any tax and social security liabilities
arising on your contract.
If you are an existing contractor, you may believe that you can carry on as
before, for example if you are from the UK then using your UK one-person
limited company may seem the simplest option. However, it is highly unlikely
that the manner under which you operated in your home environment will be
acceptable, or in fact will be the most tax efficient, when you transfer to
an overseas contract.
Every country has different rules and regulations that must be complied
with, and different international tax agreements which must be taken into
account. The penalties for non-compliance with the regulations are
significant, and poor tax planning can prove even more costly than
the penalties.
The period that you intend to remain overseas further complicates matters.
Also any previous periods of overseas work have to be taken into account.
A comprehensive picture of your personal circumstances is therefore
essential to ensure that your UK tax affairs are in order prior to your
departure and your ongoing exposure to UK tax and foreign tax is minimised
as far as possible.
Global K will collect all the necessary information to ensure that you
achieve the optimum solution and the most tax efficient package. Our
expertise in the sector covers all aspects relevant to planning your tax
affairs in the most efficient manner and ensuring your “bottom line” is
maximised at all times. And moreover, we will put at your disposal our
international network of accounting and legal firms, enabling our freelance
clients to obtain advice on all aspects of taking a position overseas.
We
are therefore always in a position to provide the freelance professional
going overseas with access to and input from a local accountant / tax
specialist in the foreign country.
