# Moving back to Britain Exit Checklist?



## Electric_boogaloo (Dec 22, 2019)

Hi all,

I’m glad to have found this site! I’m currently a UK citizen living and working in the New York (H1B since 2018) but wanting to move back home early next year.

A little background: I was moved over to the USA by the firm I work for in 2017, initially on an H3, and then decided to stay longer and got the H1B and in October 2018 switched to that Visa. The firm has been been restructuring a few things recently and told me my role would likely not be needed much longer, basically giving me a few months to find a new role without firing me.
Given my parents/family live in the UK and aren’t getting any younger, I would like that new role to be back in the UK.

Hence, I want to quit my job in the New Year (once I’ve found something in the UK) and move back to the UK. Unfortunately, I have no idea about the tax/immigration implications of me leaving the US (I moved and invested pretty much all my net worth to the US now) and to further complicate things, I was born outside the UK, so I have been classed as non dom resident in the UK prior to moving to the US.

I plan to get professional accountants and immigration lawyer advice as soon as possible too, but I wanted to ask the community here if they have any advice too, as I barely even know where to start.

My firm has been handling my tax situation since I moved so I just trusted them but it also meant that I never got myself deeply up to speed on things. I know about the not using my US credit card when back in the UK, and setting up new accounts for investment income once I’m moving but other than that, I know nothing, so any starting points would be greatly appreciated...


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

Given your visa type and the relatively short duration of your stay within the US, from a US tax / immigration perspective it should be relatively straight forward.

On an H1-B visa I believe you have a 60 day grace period to find a new job under the job portability rules... not that you will be looking for another job - but you should be able to use that to your advantage for time post employment to sort out your move to the UK.

H1-B is a non-immigrant visa so you would have one final US tax return - most likely a dual status return. After that first year then you would file a Non-Resident tax return if you had US sourced income from your US investments. You may have foreign account reporting requirements (FinCen/FBAR/FATCA) once you have set up UK financial accounts.

Given the differences in tax years, you may find that there is an equivalent "part year" return that picks up the fact that you were a non-resident for part of the UK tax year.

Once you were deemed a tax resident of the UK, you would pay UK taxes to HMRC on your global income. You would most likely be able to claim a tax credit for taxes paid to the IRS - assuming at this point you still have US income from investments that you have not yet repatriated to the UK. 

I am not really familiar with the US-UK Tax Treaty, but it is something you should read and be familiar with it

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/usa-tax-treaties


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## Electric_boogaloo (Dec 22, 2019)

Moulard said:


> Given your visa type and the relatively short duration of your stay within the US, from a US tax / immigration perspective it should be relatively straight forward.
> 
> On an H1-B visa I believe you have a 60 day grace period to find a new job under the job portability rules... not that you will be looking for another job - but you should be able to use that to your advantage for time post employment to sort out your move to the UK.
> 
> ...


Thanks Moulard, I didn’t fully understand the exit tax return item, so I really apprecaite it. 
Do you know about money movements at all?
As I understand it’s a bad idea to move money from the US to the UK (i.e. bank transfers from my US account to my UK), but I don’t fully understand why not, given I’m a resident in the US and non resident in the UK, so I’m up to do date on all taxes in the US and don’t currently pay UK taxes, so to me it shouldn’t be an issue. 

Thanks and Happy New Year!


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

> I didn’t fully understand the exit tax return item,


Not relevant to you at all. It only applies to US citizens and long term permanent residents (greencard holders) who expatriate. As an H1-B holder, it does not apply to you.




> As I understand it’s a bad idea to move money


Since the 1970s there has been anti-money laundering type laws that require the reporting of financial transactions, particularly international transactions. Over the years these laws have been expanded to include financing of terrorism and a bunch of other stuff.

Cutting a long story short, these laws require financial institutions to report large transactions to the relevant national body (in the US it is Financial Crimes Enforcement Network aka FinCen, in Australia it is Austrac, in the UK I believe it is FCA). Banks also will report suspicious transactions below the reporting threshold.. (for example a bunch of $9k transactions would get reported even though each individual transfer was below the $10k threshold.

There is nothing illegal about moving around large sums of money, its just that questions may be asked. Transfer of your money to yourself does not, in itself, result in a tax issues.

What I always recommend, and what I have personally done in the past, is to advise both the source and destination banks you will be transferring a large sums from account X in the US to account Y in the UK along with an explanation of why. This can make the transfer smoother and prevent holds being placed on the transfer at either side of the transaction... which can be important if you will need the funds to live on.


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## Electric_boogaloo (Dec 22, 2019)

Moulard said:


> Not relevant to you at all. It only applies to US citizens and long term permanent residents (greencard holders) who expatriate. As an H1-B holder, it does not apply to you.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks so much. I’ll definitely do that, I think that makes sense. Appreciate your help. Glad to hear I don’t have to be a complete worrier for now...!


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