Readers’ forum: Taxing rights

My client who has been UK resident for all of his life has found employment working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). He will work there full time for a Saudi employer. No UK duties are involved and the Saudi employer has no subsidiaries or any UK presence. He left the UK part way through the tax year (6 November 2020) and meets all of the criteria for split year treatment as at 5 April 2021 and at the date of this article. There are no immediate plans for him to return to the UK and his employment is open ended.

Given that the world is a very uncertain place currently it is always possible that he could have to return to the UK before 5 April 2022 or after this date he will exceed his maximum UK days; either event would make him UK resident (for the...