What happens if I live in both the UK and the Philippines at once?

Had a chat with prospective employers yesterday - actually part of a long series of chats - and in essence they want me to do a job which would combine work in the Philippines with work in the UK.

This is pretty much a dream job, if it comes off, of course.

I don't want to look this gift horse in the mouth but it raises an interesting set of questions as regards tax residency and immigration status, so far as I am concerned and also so far as Kay and her son Kieran are concerned - can she move to the UK on a fiancee or spouse visa if I am not normally resident in the UK? And if she moves to the UK on a spouse or fiancee visa is she "grounded" here until she gets ILR?

Sorry to ask these odd questions...

I am not bang up to date with all of this but I worked overseas for big clumps of time in the oil industry for a good many years and still maintained UK residency and paid UK tax only and was paid in UK pounds. After a 4 or 5 week tour of duty in far flung corners of the earth I would return to the UK for my time off. Roughly it was about 50/50 in terms of time allocation. On that kind of basis I get the impression that in 2013 I could still do that and still have my wife succesfully apply for a UK spouse visa.

Somebody raised the point that tax residency and residency in terms of immigration arent exactly the same.

Anyhow, bearing in mind that the Isle of Man have different tax laws to the UK but almost the same Immigration laws, my wifes friend and her husband have moved to the Isle of Man from the UK. She is a Filipina on FLR (Originally a Fiancee Visa) and he is from the UK and works overseas in the oil industry for 4 or 5 weeks at a time, coming back to the UK in his time off. He was paying UK tax but now pays IOM tax since he moved here. He has touched base with Isle of Man Immigration and it is all legal and above board.

It would seem that often your tax liability overseas under these circumstances can be down to any arrangements that your employer has with the local national tax people. ( I have no knowledge on any tax agreements or otherwise between the UK and Philippine governments. )

Thank you very much for that very helpful reply.

Andrew, if there's any chance of you intending to bring Kay and Kieran to settle in the UK then I would suggest that, based on the current regulations, you opt to be paid in the UK and pay UK taxes and National Insurance contributions. You actually may not have an option if your work will be part Philippines and part UK-based since the current 90 day in-UK allowance for those opting to be "non-residents for the purposes of UK taxation" is to be reduced to 30 days in any one tax year.

There is a bilateral tax agreement between the UK and the Philippines so you won't be liable for Philippine tax if you pay tax in the UK on income, regardless of where earned.

Thanks Mark - it certainly looks as if UK residency fits the bill. I remember from a few years ago that if a company has only one or two staff members resident in the UK they can in effect be treated as self insured for National Insurance, which iirc results in a small saving. Whether that would affect residency status for immigration is something I must find out about.

I may be wrong, but I believe that an employer is required to make both employer and employee contributions nowadays, but if not, then I'd certainly opt to pay at the self-employed rate since (I believe) that also counts towards State pension entitlement; it may also be sufficient to prevent your doctor/health authority de-registering you - thereby removing your entitlement to free care under the NHS - should you be out of the country more than 3(?) consecutive months. The important documents, from a settlement visa sponsor's point of view are your payslips, showing payments in sterling and tax deductions and your annual P60.

Since you're opting to continue with your UK residency (for tax purposes), you'd need to check with your local tax office as you may be liable for additional tax on what are loosely described as "perks" whilst you're working abroad. I'm thinking of things like round-trip airline tickets for K & K, allowances for living abroad, that kind of thing.

It also raises issues regarding your Visa status in the Philippines. I'm told - by one who had one - that employment Visas are strictly "single-shot" deals that expire when you exit the country or leave the job for which it was granted. And they are neither cheap nor easily obtained!

Providing your employment won't take you out of the country for more than about six months in any year, your - and your future employer's - best deal would be a 13(a). Assuming you do get married in Hong Kong, you'll be given a BB Privilege upon re-entry to the Philippines and you can immediately start the 13(a) process. Immigration should accept the Hong Kong Wedding Certificate that's been authenticated by the Philippine Embassy there rather than make you wait for the paperwork to filter back to the NSO in Manila, which can take several months. Once you've applied for this and it's "in-process" you may be permitted to work legally. But you won't be permitted to leave the country until that process is concluded and - assuming your 13(a) is approved - your permanent resident's ACR-I Card is issued; this can take up to 4 months from start to finish.

Be aware though that you will only be issued a Probationary Visa and you'll have to repeat the whole process again after nine months, but the waiting time is usually a bit less.

This one is interesting as I never paid tax on any of the following while working overseas or offshore UK:

Flights or any other form of transport regarded as transportation to work.
Hotels for same including training courses.
Food under the same circumstances.
Food hotels and transport while at the place of work.

This is prevalent throughout the oil industry and is by agreement with the tax people in the UK.

To my knowledge this hasn't changed.

It's early days yet to get into the real nitty gritty, but residency under immigration rules often departs from that under tax rules. Just something to keep on the back burner for later when more of the details are known.

oss makes some good points about the HMRC views on self-employment, there are (or should be) some good guidelines on the HMRC website to see how close you become to being employed or self-employed. It comes down essentially to how much decision making is your own in the employment, (can you decide what you do, when you do it and how to do it). Are you able to hire others to do that work for you. Also do you have any financial risk in the venture.

Things might have changed since my days but often those Employers who had no UK presence and only a handful of employers needed to have each employee set up and operate their own individual PAYE scheme.
If the employer had a UK presence (office etc) then even if there is only one employee the employers was required to set-up and operate the Employer's PAYE scheme.

Again something to put on the back burner.

Yes, there is a Double-Taxation agreement between UK and Philippines. This is something else you'd need to review. It doesn't necessarily mean paying less tax by switching tax liability. The devil is in the detail review the agreements and the tax rules for both countries at the time.

BTW it's worth moving tax liabilites to Philippines for some in-pension payments, as these are zero rated in Philippines .

Oss, just off topic here, but when are you able to draw your state pension?


As I recall the new pension (April 2016 onwards) puts back up the pensionable qualifying years from the existing 30 to 35.

I only have 30 years and had previously taken the decision not to buy-back oustanding years.
I may need to rethink how many I buy back as I cannot now achieve 35 years.



Another aspect of the pension reform that catches us out is that of my wife. Under the current rules even she has 2 or 5 contributing years
she would qualify for 2/30ths or 5/30ths of the full pension. Now under the new reforms she will need a minimum number of years, as yet unknown.
Reports have suggest maybe 10 years. We had hope that we could continue to secure qualifying years by voluntary contributions but seems that potential restrictions may be in the pipline for that route too.