The Chief Officer of Gibraltar has announced the following changes in his 2022 Budget Address which took place on 28th of June. Tax The tax rates across all tax bands under the Allowance Based System and the Gross Income Based System are being increased by 2% for two years, after which time they will be […]
Located at the Southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar looks South over the confluence of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. This small but strategically important isthmus of land, is home to over 32,000 people in just 6.7 km2 (2.6 miles2) of land. As a British crown dependency, the laws and language are those of the United Kingdom, but Spanish is also widely spoken along with the hybridised form of the two known as Llanito. Due to its location and close links with the UK, Gibraltar has long been a favoured destination by British expats looking for sunnier climes and an attractive tax regime. Although it’s not quite as well-known as some other offshore territories such as Monaco and the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar tax rates make it a very attractive choice for anyone looking to relocate within easy striking distance of the UK and Western Europe.
Some of the most confusing and complex areas for any UK expat to decipher are their tax obligations, in both their new home country, and their country of origin. Should you be paying tax on foreign income? Is there any kind of foreign residence tax exemption? How can I get a residence tax definition? It’s a labyrinthine subject, and one that merits the help of a financial professional, but it’s good to be forearmed with a basic grasp of the subject before you do so. If you are liable to pay UK tax you will be expected to file a tax return, failure to do so or not doing so in good time, can result in penalties and even interest payments on monies owed.
Expat financial planning clients should be aware that HM Revenue & Customs have increased powers to ensure full disclosure of financial information in order to assess tax liability.
This follows a ruling by the Court of Appeal in London* in which the Court upheld the right of HMRC to demand compliance from a UK-connected individual living in Dubai.
The case clearly indicates that UK-interested parties with cross-border financial interests must consider their UK tax liabilities as part of their wider expat financial plans.
As reported in our Big Deal blog, the UK and Spain have a tax treaty agreement for Gibraltar and Spain. This 2019 treaty is designed to clarify a number of important issues, including the long-standing, contentious issues of tax disputes and tax residency.
Furthermore, the Treaty resolves the issue of Gibraltar's ongoing consistency with EU law following Brexit as the British Overseas Territory has elected to retain legislation equivalent to EU law on all matters related to financial transparency, taxation, administration and Anti-Money Laundering.
If your expat financial adviser in the Netherlands has not alerted you to the fact already, you should be aware that the deadlines for Dutch tax returns are looming. Depending on your circumstances, these are as follows:
30 April – This is the general deadline and applies to the majority of taxpayers in the Netherlands 1 July – This is the deadline for most non-residents, including those who are newly arrived in the Netherlands as well as all other parties who qualify as M Form taxpayers (those who have only spent part of the tax year in the Netherlands due to immigration or emigration)Expat financial advice is a must for any British expat living in Portugal, Spain or Italy to ensure they meet their cross-border taxation obligations while also making the most of the financial growth and preservation opportunities available to them.
However, there is no off-the-shelf recipe for success in this regard. Instead, expat financial advisers need to take full account of every client's individual circumstances before recommending any product or strategy.
Furthermore, the parameters affecting expat investors are subject to jurisdictional differences and change, so it is not only essential that expat financial advisers stay abreast of their clients' changing needs and circumstances but also the changing legal and regulatory environment in which their investments operate.
The structure of your wealth and your tax affairs should always depend on the particular laws and regulations of where you reside in the world as well as the nature of your long-term goals. The expat financial services market has evolved in order to help cater to these considerations and in some cases this includes helping ensure clients meet the demands of wealth tax.
The notion of wealth tax is an easy one to understand – a tax levied on personal capital above a certain threshold or thresholds – but it is by no means universally embraced as economic good sense, not least because it often may serve only to keep high net worth individuals from emigrating to a high wealth tax jurisdiction.
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