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Moving to UK but still be paid by my company in SA, what is the process?

Posted 19 February 2013

I have a SA Company that is a Pty Ltd. We do various websites. We receive monies though debit orders from customers that list on the sites, all South African. My wife and I are both directors and the only employees.

We are thinking about moving to the UK and trying to find out who we would then pay tax to, SARS or UK on our salaries each month. We would be living there permanently with maybe a holiday each year to SA for a week or two.,

I have had conflicting answers to this question from SARS and HMRC and not to mention my accountant and a tax consultant that I called.

Also if I had to pay SARS and got a tax credit in the UK, do you know if this tax credit covers National Insurance as well or is this separate.

TaxTim TaxTim says:
20 February 2013 at 15:19

If you personally move to the the UK and no longer reside in South Africa then your personal taxes will be paid in the UK to the HMRC.

However the company in South Africa will still pay corporations tax in SA if it continues to be run in SA and earns income from SA. You could make the company a non-resident company given that you and your wife would be the directors, but not tax resident of South Africa and therefore your taxes as a result of dividends or directors fees may be taxed in the UK. Furthermore it can then be said that the company is not effectively managed in South Africa which changes quite a few things from a tax perspective. Are you planning on officially emigrating?

The basic principle though for paying taxes is that if earned in South Africa for the company then taxes will be paid on those earnings and similar to yourselves. If you are no longer resident of SA, but earning from an SA source there may be tax in SA, but your overall tax liability would be in the UK which means you would be allowed a tax credit against your overall liabilities in the UK.

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