Can I get tax back if I leave the UK?
A P85 form should be submitted to HMRC if you intend to leave the UK and want to claim tax back. The P85 is also used to determine whether you are a resident of the UK or a non-resident. You must inform HM Revenue & Customs if:
• You leave the UK to live abroad on a permanent basis
• If you are going to work abroad full-time for at least one full tax year.
You do not need to fill in a P85 if you are leaving the UK for a holiday or business trip.
Before you leave the UK
When you submit your P85 form, you will also need to send parts 2 and 3 of your P45. You can get this from your employer, or if you are claiming Jobseeker Allowance, you can get it from Jobcentre Plus. If you are self-employed or have other sources of income away from your full-time employment, you will also need to file a self-assessment tax form.
What does a P85 look like?
National insurance and state pension after leaving
If you want to carry on paying national insurance contributions while you are living abroad, you can do. You can do this if you are planning on returning to the UK or are going to claim a state pension later in life. You cannot claim back national insurance contributions, but anything you have paid may count towards benefits in the country you are emigrating to if you have a social security agreement with the UK.
What Can I Claim Tax Back On?
You can claim tax back on most work-related expenses. Below is a list of items that you can request a tax rebate on:
• Vehicles for work use
• Fuel/Mileage costs
• Travel expenses
• Overnight expenses (food in certain circumstances)
• Rail Tickets (single & season tickets)
• Uniforms, work clothing and tools
• Cleaning costs for uniforms
• Professional fees, subscriptions & unions fees
This list is an example of what you could claim back; there may be expenses & items specific to the job role that you could claim back.
What are the Deadlines?
- Current legislation in the UK says you can go back up to four Tax years when claiming a Tax rebate. This means at the current moment in time you can make a claim for the following periods:
- Year ended 5th April 2021
- Year ended 5th April 2022
- Year ended 5th April 2023
- Year ended 5th April 2024
Effectively this means you can claim Tax relief from 6th April 2020.
Over such a long period of time wage slips and p60s can be lost or misplaced. This isn’t a problem as you have lots of ways to obtain this information.
- Contact your current/previous employers as they are legally obliged to keep your records going back 6 years and because of GDPR if your request that information they have to provide it to you.
- You could log into your government gateway which is easy to set up if you have never done this.
- Contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300 and request that they post out to you a tax history letter which usually arrives in 10 working days from when you request it from them and this tax history letter will go back 4 years.
Am I Due Any Tax Back?
Most workers, whether employed or self-employed may be due a tax rebate for work-related items, expenses or because they have paid too much tax. HMRC do not know everyone’s individual circumstances, and it is up to the taxpayer to contact HMRC to see if they are entitled to any tax relief.
Other reasons for a tax refund may include pension payments, redundancy payments, interest from a savings account, PPI, or UK income if you are living aboard.
All claims for tax refunds and rebates are reviewed on a case by case basis. Use our tax claim form and answer a few simple questions to see if you could be entitled to make a claim.
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