Non-resident status

While going abroad, take full advantage of your non-residence status. If you are planning to live abroad for at least five complete tax years, you should be able to escape UK capital gains tax on gains you make while you are abroad. You should claim non-UK resident status from your date of departure. However, for capital gains tax HMRC will generally not accept you are nonresident until the start of the tax year following your departure. So if you can leave the UK just before 6 April, you will have the maximum period free of the UK tax system.

If you are a citizen or a resident alien who lives and works in a foreign country, you may qualify to exclude all or part of your foreign earnings from your taxable income on your tax return. Foreign earnings includes wages, salaries, commissions, professional fees, and bonuses, for personal services performed in some other country during the time your tax home is in a foreign country. What defines your foreign earnings as foreign is the place where you perform the services and not where or how you are paid. Generally, your tax home is the general area of your main place of business or post of duty, regardless of where you maintain your family home. If you do not have a regular or main place of business because of the nature of your work, then your tax home may be the place where you regularly live.