All Posts in "Taxes"

I’ve been troubled by taxes recently.  We all grumble about high taxes and not having enough left over to live on, so I won’t go there.  But, I’m still trying to understand how and what taxes are taken out.[ad#ad-1]

I suppose I’m lucky that my employer takes out the taxes for me.  It’s the same in the US when you work for a company.  And it looks relatively simple – they take out PAYE and NI.  NI, or National Insurance, is kind of like Social Security and PAYE is all the other taxes.  I don’t recall if they ever asked about my marital status.  Unlike the US, they don’t have “exemptions”, where you claim for yourself and all your dependents, and your taxes vary according to this.  However, they do allow for a certain amount of your pay to be tax-free.

I still cannot get used to being paid monthly.  Of course, it’s been only two months.  And the way they worked out the monthly pay was extremely baffling until I called them and they ran through it with me. They did admit it was a bit strange, but they felt it was the fairest way.  So, even if I work more days one month, I may get less pay.  It made it difficult to understand the taxation as well.

I had worked out my taxes using calculators on the internet and the figures there differed from each other as well as my actual taxes.  I’m not sure whether to be pleased or worried because it’s more in one and less in the other, NI and PAYE that is.

The other part of taxes that has me worried is filing.  In the US, you’re supposed to file, because sometimes you owe money and sometimes you’re due a refund, for various reasons.  Over here, it seems that most people aren’t required to file because their taxes should already be taken out correctly.  It’s only if you receive income from more than one source, if you have business-related expenses that you want to claim, or if you are self-employed that you have to file.

To make it more confusing, the deadline for filing by paper was at the beginning of October.  If you didn’t file it then, you will have to do it online and the deadline for that is the end of January.  I don’t understand why there is a 4-month discrepancy on that.  And that being the case, when is the actual tax year?  In the US, the tax year is the calendar year – January to January.  You receive your W-2s (tax statements) after January and you can file from that point until April 15th.

Then there’s the question of Child Tax Credits.  I believe I qualify for this, but do I claim for it by filing taxes?  Is this similar to “exemptions” for dependents in the US?

I may sound ignorant about the tax system, but if the Chancellor needs tax advice, then I shouldn’t feel so bad.

It’s a good thing that I haven’t worked long enough or earned enough to pay double taxes this year.  My US income tax form will be relatively blank.  It may be a different story next year, but by then, I hope to have learned enough about the UK taxes so that I won’t be cheated of my income. 

Yank by — December 4, 2009 in Money 2

[ad#ad-1-front]

Tax time again. Just got my W-2s, so I’ll have to get down to filing that return. Unfortunately, I’ve already run into some obstacles. The first is that we now have an international address and that may cause problems. And until we resolve those issues, we cannot file.

Yes, even though we’ve moved out of the country, we still have to file taxes. Our reason is obvious, though. We are expecting a refund. However, even if we weren’t, they recommend that we do. This is to ensure that we will be able to claim deductions in the future. Apparently, expatriates are not aware of that. However, their website does state that those expatriates who want to make up for the past should download the last 3 years of tax forms and start filing. There are no deadlines and they will not be fined. In addition, the filing deadline each year for those living abroad is automatically extended until June 16th. Nevertheless, if you owe money, it needs to be sent by April 15th. If you cannot file by June 16th, you must submit a request for extension by that date, in order to extend the deadline until October 15th. They will accept whatever date is postmarked on the envelope as the filing date.

Expatriates need to also be aware that if they live and work outside the US, their income may be liable to taxation from both the US and the foreign country. The current level of income that is excluded from US taxation is now at $85,700. Anything above that would be liable for US taxes. However, when you file, you may be able to claim foreign tax credit – that is, you may be able to deduct the taxes that you paid towards the foreign government. For more information, you should contact a tax advisor at the US embassy.

I think the real killer in this taxing business is the exchange rate. It is not based on the current exchange at all, but on the rate in 2007. For example, the UK exchange rate is currently at $2.0018 per pound sterling. That means, if I earned 40K in the UK it equals a little over 80K in the US, rather than closer to 60K, at the current exchange rate. Only a few more grand and I would be liable to double taxation. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am currently unemployed.

Some people may be confused about which forms to fill out for filing their taxes. The simple rule is to assume your status in the US prior to living abroad. That is, if you are a US citizen or if you had been a resident alien, you should file Form 1040. If you were and are a US nonresident alien, then you use Form 1040NR. Nonresident status only applies to those who were not given full residential rights, such as temporary students.[ad#ad-1]

Finally, if you choose to file your taxes on paper (we have not done this in years), you may either turn it into the US Embassy in London, Paris, or Frankfurt (depending on where you live), or you may send it to Austin, Texas. And, if you have any questions, the US Embassy may be able to answer them. Or, if you were as lucky as I was, you will get a message stating they are understaffed and you may not have your call answered. They will instead direct you to call their Philadelphia office. I wonder what their walk-in service would be like.

Yank by — February 25, 2009 in Money 1