Income tax rise for British expats

You may have seen emails alerting you to a new fraud specific to the financial services advice industry. We are not aware of any of our clients having been targeted in the way described below, but it is our responsibility at Blacktower to do everything we can to educate our clients about these scams to avoid any harm coming to them.

The fraudsters claim to be from the Financial Conduct Authority or local law enforcement and are targeting clients of investment management firms. They are advising clients that the investment manager, adviser or firm is under investigation. The fraudster specifically asks the client not to speak to their investment manager, adviser or firm, or even close connections, claiming this would be considered tipping off. The client is then advised to encash their portfolio and move the cash to the client’s bank account. Once this is done, the fraudster then ‘recommends’ an investment which is actually a scam.

New research has indicated that the income of British expats has fallen by 11% since 2005, meaning that there is now extra imperative for Brits abroad to benefit from the advice of the providers of expat financial services.

According to the study, the majority of expat pensioners live in countries within the Eurozone. As such it is possible that, for some, living and financial arrangements could be at risk in the event of Brexit, particularly as the value of their pensions has fallen by more than 4% over the past year.