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Cross-border tax advice for Kiwis, Aussies and expats in the UK.

Two tax systems. One clear answer.

A rental back home. Savings you never moved. An employer in Sydney. A pension you would like to take with you. Once your life spans two countries, the tax does too, and most of what you find online only covers one side of it.

We are UK accountants founded by two New Zealanders who made the move ourselves. We work out where you are tax resident, what the UK expects to see, and how to make sure you are not taxed twice on the same income.

Talk to a cross-border accountant Browse the guides

The short version

  • 1 If you are UK tax resident, the UK taxes your worldwide income, not just what you earn here.
  • 2 Paying tax on it back home does not mean you can leave it off your UK return.
  • 3 Double tax agreements usually stop you paying twice, but only if you claim the relief.
  • 4 Overseas banks now report to HMRC automatically, so it is better to get ahead of it.

Which of these sounds like you?

Cross-border tax questions tend to arrive at one of four moments.

You're moving to the UK

Sorting out residency, the FIG regime and what to do with the house, savings and KiwiSaver or super before you land is far cheaper than fixing it afterwards.

Start with residency

You live here, with money or property back home

A rental in Auckland, a term deposit in Brisbane, shares, a family trust. If you are UK tax resident, HMRC expects to hear about all of it.

Income from back home

You're heading home, or moving on

Leaving the country and leaving the UK tax system are two different things. Timing decides what the UK can still tax after you have gone.

Leaving the UK

HMRC has written to you

A letter about overseas income is unsettling, but it is rarely as bad as it reads. What matters is what you do next, and how quickly.

HMRC letters

The cross-border tax questions we answer every week

We speak to a lot of people about tax across borders, and the same questions come up again and again. Each one below has a plain-English summary and the in-depth guides we have written on it.

UK tax residency and the Statutory Residence Test

Everything else on this page hangs on one question: are you UK tax resident? It is not decided by your visa, your passport or where you pay tax already. It is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, which looks at the days you spend in the UK alongside your work, your home and your ties to the country.

Get it right and you know exactly what the UK can and cannot tax. Get it wrong and you can end up resident in two countries at once, which is where the double tax agreements come in.

Read the guides

The FIG regime, and whether to use it

From 6 April 2025 the old non-dom rules and the remittance basis went, replaced by a residence-based system. In their place is the Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime, which gives qualifying new arrivals up to four years of relief on overseas income and gains.

It is not automatically a good deal. Electing in for a year means giving up your personal allowance (£12,570) and your capital gains annual exempt amount (£3,000 for 2025/26). FIG is four separate annual decisions, not one, and the right answer can change from year to year.

Read the guides

Rental property back home

"I pay tax on it in New Zealand, so I don't need to worry about it here" is the line we hear most often, and it is not quite right. If you are UK tax resident, rental profit from a property overseas is normally taxable in the UK and has to be reported to HMRC, even if you have already paid tax on it at home.

You usually will not pay twice, because you can claim credit for the overseas tax. But the UK works out rental profit differently, so a property making a loss on your NZ or Australian return can show a profit on your UK one.

Read the guides

Overseas savings, and letters from HMRC

Banks in New Zealand, Australia and well over a hundred other countries now report account balances and interest to their own tax authority every year, and that information is passed to HMRC automatically. It is called the Common Reporting Standard, and it is why letters about overseas interest have gone from rare to routine.

If one has arrived, it is genuine and it should not be ignored. In most cases the fix is to work out the real figures and correct the years affected. Where earlier years need putting right, our Disclosure Service handles it from start to finish.

Read the guides

Selling property, shares and investments overseas

Sell a property or shares back home while you are UK resident and the UK may want capital gains tax on it, whatever the rules say in the country where the asset sits. Exchange rates matter too, because the gain is measured in sterling.

This is the area where timing does the most work. The date you become resident, the date you leave and the date you sell can change the bill dramatically. Funds such as KiwiSaver and PIEs have their own traps on the UK side.

Read the guides

Working in the UK for an overseas employer

If you do your job from a desk in the UK, those are UK duties from the first day, even when the contract is with a company in Melbourne, the salary lands in an account back home and every client is overseas. Working online does not move your duties to wherever the employer happens to be.

Being inside the UK tax system is not the same as owing a UK tax bill, and genuine short trips are treated differently. Where the employer has no UK presence, HMRC's DPNI and DCNI arrangements let you run the UK payroll yourself, and we operate that for you.

Read the guides

Leaving the UK

Most people assume that leaving the UK means they stop paying UK tax. Eventually that is true, but losing UK tax residency is governed by the same Statutory Residence Test that made you resident in the first place. Day counts, ties and split-year treatment decide the point at which the UK lets go.

If you run a limited company, how and when you take the money out before you go matters just as much as the date on the plane ticket.

Read the guides

Pensions, property and inheritance

The bigger life decisions all have a cross-border angle. Moving a UK pension to New Zealand or Australia means dealing with the QROPS rules on both sides. Buying a home in the UK while you still own one overseas can trigger a 5% stamp duty surcharge and remove first-time buyer relief.

Inheritance works differently too, and the UK's rules for long-term residents changed in 2025. These are the decisions worth a conversation before you make them, not after.

Read the guides

Not from New Zealand or Australia?

The examples on this page lean towards Kiwis and Aussies because that is who we hear from most. The UK side of the problem is the same wherever the other half of your life is. The Statutory Residence Test, the FIG regime, foreign tax credit relief and HMRC's disclosure routes all work the same way whether the income comes from South Africa, Canada, the United States, Ireland or anywhere else.

What changes from country to country is the double tax agreement and the rules at the other end. We will tell you plainly where we can handle everything ourselves and where you will also want an adviser in the other country.

Accountants who have been through it

Greg and Helen moved to the UK from New Zealand and started No Worries in 2005. Like most new arrivals, they assumed you pay tax where you live and that is the end of it. It turned out to be a little more complicated than that.

Two decades later, cross-border tax is some of the work we do most. Every guide on this page comes out of real conversations with clients, which is why they deal with the situations people actually find themselves in.

You get a named accountant, clear fees agreed before we start, and straight answers in plain English.

Greg Hanton, co-founder, writes our cross-border guides. He is a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA), a member of AAT and a Chartered Engineer (CEng). More about us.

A first conversation

Tell us what is going on. It is free and there is no obligation. Often a short call is enough to tell you whether you have a problem at all.

We establish where you stand

Residency first, then what needs reporting in the UK, for which tax years, and what relief you can claim for tax paid overseas.

We put it right, and keep it right

That might be a Self Assessment return each year, a disclosure for earlier years, a UK payroll for an overseas employer, or a plan for the move you are about to make.

The services behind the advice

How the work actually gets done

Personal Tax Return

Your Self Assessment return, with overseas income reported and foreign tax credit relief claimed. From £145 + VAT.

Disclosure Service

Earlier years that need correcting, handled through the Worldwide Disclosure Facility. £295 including VAT per affected tax year.

DPNI & DCNI Payroll

A UK payroll for people working here for an overseas employer with no UK presence.

Landlord Accounting

UK and overseas rental income kept straight all year round, ready for Making Tax Digital.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about UK tax when your life spans two countries.

If you are UK tax resident, the UK taxes you on your worldwide income. That normally includes rent, bank interest, dividends and gains from New Zealand, Australia or anywhere else, and it has to be reported to HMRC. If you are not UK tax resident, the UK generally only taxes your UK income.
Yes. Paying tax overseas does not remove the need to report the income in the UK. You usually will not pay twice, because the UK's double tax agreements let you claim credit for the tax already paid, but the income still has to go on your UK return.
Through the Statutory Residence Test. It counts the days you spend in the UK and looks at your work, your home and your other ties to the country. It does not depend on your visa or nationality, and paying tax in another country does not decide it either. Establishing residency is the first thing we do with every cross-border client.
The Foreign Income and Gains regime replaced the old non-dom remittance basis from 6 April 2025. Qualifying new arrivals can claim relief on overseas income and gains for up to four tax years. Electing in for a year means giving up your personal allowance (£12,570) and your capital gains annual exempt amount (£3,000 for 2025/26), so it only pays when the overseas tax saved is bigger than what you give up. It is a fresh decision each year.
Do not ignore it, and do not panic. These letters are genuine and are prompted by information HMRC now receives automatically from overseas banks under the Common Reporting Standard. The next step is to work out what was actually earned, in which tax years, and whether anything needs correcting. If earlier years are affected, we can make the disclosure for you through HMRC's official routes.
Work you physically do in the UK counts as UK duties from the first day, wherever the employer is based and wherever you are paid. There is an exception for genuine short trips under the double tax agreements. If your employer has no UK presence, a DPNI or DCNI payroll lets the right UK tax and National Insurance be paid, and we can run that payroll for you.
Not automatically. Whether and when you stop being UK tax resident is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, and split-year treatment may apply in the year you leave. Income and gains that arise before you have properly broken residency can still be taxed in the UK, so it pays to plan the dates before you go.
No. Kiwis and Aussies are who we know best, because that is where we come from, but the UK rules on residency, foreign income, double tax relief and disclosure apply wherever your overseas income arises. We regularly help people with ties to other countries too.
It depends on what is needed, and we will tell you the fee before any work starts. As a guide, personal tax returns start from £145 + VAT, and our HMRC Disclosure Service is a fixed £295 including VAT per affected tax year, with a minimum of £885 including VAT. The first conversation is free.

This page is general guidance, not personal tax advice. Tax rules change and the right answer depends on your circumstances, so please speak to us before acting on it.

Two tax systems.
One clear answer.

Whether you are about to move, already here or on your way home, the first step is a conversation. Tell us what is going on and we will tell you where you stand.

Book a free consultation

Prefer to talk? Call us on 020 7731 1117