Taxes….we don’t file any more! Well, that’s not strictly true – I file tax returns online in the UK for our UK assets which is a great service to use for LIPs but you do have to register with UK HMRC for it first as they then need to send you all sorts of security codes. Our company if actually an offshore one, so aside from UK things, we don’t need to file any earnings for the business.

Lindsay

I am just transitioning into merchant accounts. I used to do all check payments but am tired of chasing after people to write the check. I am located in California, USA, so I am not sure if I would be helpful for you since I am not sure if it is UK-compatible.

Some US banks do have merchant accounts and online banking, perhaps that may be an alternative to look into for UK?

Cheers,
Cindy

Good questions, more details on our personal circumstances are in the book but here’s some brief answers…

1) Yes for now – we still have UK bank accounts but are looking into offshore accounts to prevent having to pay tax on chunks of income, especially as our corp is set up in a different country.

2) We were actually asked to show a credit card on arrival in the US once this year even though we were only staying overnight. We’ve also had to show the cc in Grenada – not immediately on arrival but at immigration when applying to extend our stay. This is often the case if you want to extend your tourist visa, as the officials obviously want to know that/how you can support yourself if you’re not working in their country.

3) We don’t pay National Insurance in the UK anymore although we’re weighing up the options of continuing to do so as a non-resident. This is largely because we believe we will never return to the UK permanently to live – but you never know and never say never, so we’ll see how it goes!

“inate fear” of renting? That’s an interesting one! What’s behind the fear?