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  • 1 Post By Edwardstorm

"Tax resident"

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  1. #1

    "Tax resident"

    My background is as follows:
    I'm a British Born Chinese holding a British passport; nursery, primary, secondary and university all in the UK. Never held a "proper" job in the UK so did not pay any taxes. I only moved to HK about 3 years ago and I'm a PR (thanks to my parents). I've been working ever since and have been paying my taxes too.

    So I received a letter from my bank stating that HK are implementing the "Common Reporting Standard" where they need to determine which country I am a "tax resident." My bank says from my details, they think I'm a tax resident in both HK and UK (I assume they got this info as my mailing address was once in the UK).

    They're asking for my Taxpayer Identification Number which I have in HK. But since I never worked in the UK, am I suppose to have one?

    Exactly, what determines whether I have to pay BOTH HK and UK taxes?! I'd have no money left!


  2. #2

    Have you tried googling it? Based on that, what do you think you are? HK or UK tax resident?


  3. #3

    Well I'm definitely a HK tax resident!

    From the gov.uk website:
    "If you’re UK resident, you’ll normally pay tax on your foreign income. But you may not have to if your permanent home (‘domicile’) is abroad."

    I guess I must prove that HK is my permanent home...

    Or I can get "tax relief" if I'm taxed in more than one country(!)


  4. #4

    You're PR and you live here for all of the year. Therefore you're not a tax resident in the UK. I assume since you weren't sure the bank just wanted to cover its butt in case you are. But don't just take my word for it. I'm sure some of the Brits on here will chime in soon.


  5. #5

    You don’t have to prove anything. You are HK resident and not UK resident. Banks have systems triggering if they see a foreign correspondence address, foreign phone number or “care of”
    postal address. That’s it. Just fill in HK resident and your HK tax TIN...

    NedMan likes this.

  6. #6

    Oh my goodness, definite sigh of relief. Thanks so much for the replies.

    Flowchart shows I'm not a resident of the UK for this tax year


  7. #7

    Lol, many of us have been there. Left home when we were young and careless, then a few years later someone mentions taxes, then you go online and scare yourself.


  8. #8

    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    1,707

    I suggest you contact HK Immigration dept given your birth history and apply ROP145 and ROP146
    Both my children were born here and lived here all their lives until they went to Uni in Oz
    Both have Permanent HK adult ID- so all should be OK right?
    Wrong
    Believe it or not you have to go through this ROP145 and 146 procedure before they reach the age of 21 even when they already hold Permanent adult HKID after reaching age 18 and going through the adult ID issue process

    The Banks are now bound to enforce and supply data on AEOI so pretty soon the Mainland wil be receiving data on all the Mainlanders here holding property, shares, vehicles, bank accounts etc and wil be asking how they managed to own HKD500m property here and overseas whilst reporting no tax in China