Tax tip: UK employees who leave the UK and work overseas

UK employees who leave the UK and work overseas.

Do you have clients who send employees overseas on assignment? In particular to countries with which the UK doesn’t have a social security agreement (totalisation agreement) for example Australia the United Arab Emirates or Singapore?

When considering the NIC position for UK-based employees who have been posted overseas it is important to realise that the NIC rules differ substantively from the PAYE/income tax obligations. Hence UK based individuals who are posted overseas to a non-agreement country can remain liable to UK NICs for the first 52 weeks abroad even though they have (presumably) become non-tax resident in the UK.

Moreover the regulations come with practical challenges. For example the issue of whether there is an ongoing NIC liability can depend on whether the contract stays with the UK company and whether the individual remains ‘ordinary...