Some non-UK employees are requested by their employer to come to the UK and work as secondment. In that scenario, you would have been remunerated in GBP through the PAYE (‘Pay As You Earn’) tax system used by UK employers. The good news about this is that you may actually qualify for a substantial tax refund (also known as a tax rebate) from HMRC when you return to your home country. Many of our clients obtain very substantial tax rebates worth several hundreds of pounds, so it is definitely worth checking…
You may qualify for a tax rebate if all the following criteria apply to you:
- You worked in the UK branch of the same company for training purposes or to oversee or be part of a particular project in the UK
- Your period of secondment ended after 5 April 2010.
- Your period of secondment in the UK did not exceed 24 months
- After your period of secondment in the UK you returned to work for the same employer in your own country
What we charge…
20%* from any refund due to you, subject to £180* minimum administration fee. We'll charge you either the £180 administration fee or the 20% fee rate, whichever is the higher.
Our fee includes:
- All calculations & computations
- Completing all official paperwork
- Submitting paperwork and liaising with HMRC
- Regularly updating you
Do I need to submit a self assessment tax return?
Yes, if you came to work to the UK and contacted HMRC in order to register for Self Assessment before returning to your home country, in the hope of claiming a tax refund. If this is your case, HMRC would have written to you and issued you with a Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number. They would also have written to your overseas address to remind you of your obligation to file a tax return within the stipulated deadlines. Serious financial penalties may be levied against you if you fail to do so.
If you didn’t contact HMRC to register for self assessment before returning to your own country, it may not be too late! You have a period of four tax years in order to claim a tax refund via self assessment. This means that the earliest that you can claim back a refund following a period of work secondment in the UK is 6th April 2010. You cannot claim a refund for any secondment period that happened before that date. So don’t leave it too late or you may run the risk of losing your entitlement to a tax rebate for good!