Okay, so you’re going to Dubai for 18 months, and you’re going to be moving abroad, living as an expatriate, and your main aim will be to achieve UK tax non-residence. And you’ll say to me, how many UK days can I be back in the UK? Well, it’s certainly not 183. It’s a lot lower than that. And it’s something we need to talk about.
Please be careful on that point, because you could trigger UK tax again. The next thing I always mention is notifying HMRC. There’s a special form that needs to be filed with them, which I’ll post on the website. Have a look at it, but please talk it through with me. It contains a few traps on that form. We need to be careful we don’t fall foul of them.
Lastly, there’s a record keeping point, which goes on for the whole time you’re out there, which involves keeping a work diary as to where you are and what day, where you’re working, your flights in and out of the country, copies of boarding passes. People say that’s dull.