UK income tax for visiting aircrew

[old fart]

Hi Chaps,
I have been advised by the Inland Revenue, UK Centre for Non-Residents, that ALL aircrew who visit the UK during the course of their work are liable to pay UK income tax on the salary they earn while they are in the UK.
I was also advised that if an aircrew member pays tax in a country which has a double tax agreement with the UK, that this liability will probably be waived.
However, no matter where you reside, a UK tax declaration would be required.
Does anyone have experience in this??
Cheers,
Old Fart.

[angels]

Farty - You only have to pay UK tax if you are resident for 90 days or more (as I recall). If you're in doubt, a Google on Inland Revenue will sort you out.

I'm not a pilot, but was Ex-Pat for some 8-1/2 years and never had to pay tax during/after my visits to Blighty.

[old fart]

I was advised that the 90 day rule does not apply.
Cheers.
Old fart

[Rainboe]

All officials in the UK tax department frequently appear to give conflicting advice. Foreign crews as well as visiting foreign businessmen do NOT have to declare income and pay tax. Unless there are other circumstances, this is the case. I assume you are a foreign taxpayer domiciled abroad? If not, then your question was misleading. A potential liability has been declared in order to be able tax people working out of Britain if they are foreign taxpayers- thus British crews living abroad can be taxed on the British income whilst within British boundaries. The intention is not to tax foreigners visiting on business trips as long as they are taxpayers abroad.

This post would be better in the Questions Forum- this is Rumours & News.

[old fart]

Hello angel,
Further to your reply, I am told that tax is due because the money was earned in the UK. A totally different situation to anyone who is resident overseas and earning their salary for work done overseas. Google (inland revenue) makes this quite clear.
The question is whether overseas aircrew have been asked to pay tax while in the UK during the course of their duties. IE on a night stop.
Cheers

[Rainboe]

They haven't. Should it ever happen, they would be able to set it off from their domestic tax. The paperwork would be horrendous enough for the taxation authorities to mutually agree not to flog it.

[Nightrider]

This actually reminds me of a time when the smart pilots started using Mikrocomputers as they were called, the Z-80 processor doing the maths...
At that time we calculated the exact moment passing the Italian border inbound Italy and again outbound...the time inbetween we were allowed to claim tax back as being in a "third" country....
There was, however, the law in place to report this "tax-free" income to the Italian revenue office...which we all found difficult as the addresss was never at hand....
The a.m. microcomputer was used to calculate these times of tax-free life and with MD-DOS and Excel not even born spreadsheets like Magic Wand did a slow but perfect job under C/P M80.
No, there is no tax-declaration required from anyone not resident in the UK for at least 90 days and paying tax elsewhere unless employed in the UK for any amount of time, or living abroad and having no property in the UK.

[EGGW]

Only UK citizens who are non-residents, who as aircrew operate into the UK have to pay tax on the amount of times they operated into the UK.

The Fry Group advised me of this, you can try and avoid if you have no UK property or assets, but its your call.

Fry Group (http://www.thefrygroup.co.uk)

:(

EGGW.

[Re-Heat]

Sounds similar to the US stuff at http://pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163806

[BYMONEK]

EGGW is correct.Having filed my return for last year, I was indeed taxed on some of my salary while I was on UK nightstops.I have property in UK and as a citizen,i'm required to declare my time in UK while employed as Aircrew. A rather complicted (to me anyway) formula is used and you end up paying a small amount
.......I think it was less than £200. There are many people who don't bother but if you have assets in UK and you receive income from these,then you need to complete a tax return and as a result,declare you Salary and time spent in UK during layovers... regardless of 90 day rule.
Bugger! :(

[cavortingcheetah]

I doubt that citizenship has much to do with it. If you own property or shares etc and so in, in the UK and derive income from such then you may be liable for UK income tax on such profits regardless of whether or not you are resident or ordinarily resident. Domicile is something quite different. Of course, you will still be enititled to the usual allowances before taxation as applicable to marital state.
If you are not domiciled in the UK (a ruling for this has to be obtained from the Revenue) you are not liable for UK income tax on any money earned or paid overseas, even though you may be resident in the UK. You do not have to declare it on your tax return so long as you have not brought these funds into the country, in any way at all, such as by a constructive remittance.
More information may be obtained upon payments of large amounts of cash and all information is gven without prejudice.:E

[Speedbird48]

When I returned to the UK, in 1970,after a time in Kenya, with the original East African, the UK Income Tax authorities demanded my log book and my passport, so that they could check how many days that I had been in the UK over the last few years.

Fortunatly I had been on the Comets for much of my time and therefore had not been in the UK as often as the VC-10 guys.

The tax man also did the same thing to several of the Gulf Air guys.

Death and/or the Tax Man will get you in the end!!

[30W]

So, what happens to all the Canadian pilots who visit the UK each summer operating for 5 or 6 months on behalf of UK Charter operators??

I'm damn sure they don't pay UK tax!!

If they need to, perhaps someone should inform the IR so due payments by them can be claimed.......

About time we found a method of employing British pilots in this country rather than bringing in Canadians for 6 months at a time!!

30W