Expat contractor, where am I resident? Is Malta any good?

[Kool]

I am looking for some tips and advice from some experienced expat contractors out there.

The position I am in at the moment is unusual and I am sure there must be some good ideas out there to save me spending too much in taxes.

I am English, I have until April 2007 lived in England. Since April 2007 I have lived in the netherlands. Here I pay taxes and NI and benefit from their 30% ruling.
I am not a resident here in the netherlands. Nor do I now believe I am a resident of the UK.
After I sell my houses in the UK and close the accounts, I will have no ties to the UK So I may end up soon not being Domiciled in the UK.
My aim in next xx years is to be based in Malta, rent a small apartment there. And use it as a base to do contracting where ever required.


Ok so now the questions,
Can anyone clarify which country I am resident in at the moment?
If I ever manage to sell my 2 houses in the UK, and manage to sell for more than I paid for them (ever decreasing reality) then will I pay capital gains tax)
Does the moving to Malta idea sound good? Or will in general I always be taxed locally? I guess middle east is the exception.

Any tips or ideas would be welcome.

regards

Kool

[ace00]

If you're working in country A, you're resident in country A for tax purposes.
Except.......well it's a long story.

If you want to offshore you need to form a company in location B and work in country A as a consultant for your company. Your company is liable in location B for taxes. However there are many exceptions to this as of course the man don't like it.

Most ways round this rely on the "what they don't know won't hurt you" principle.

To avoid caps gain tax I don't know. For sure you would need to be expatriated officially and even that might not get you out of it.

Hope that's of some use. You are now resident in the Netherlands.

[NotAllThere]

You can be tax resident in more than one country. You can't be tax resident nowhere.

Why do you believe you're not resident in the NL? Btw - no point in asking HMRC, they'll just say it's down to self-assessment. Just don't get it wrong.

[Kool]

You can be tax resident in more than one country. You can't be tax resident nowhere.

Why do you believe you're not resident in the NL?

Well As far as I know I am classified as "Partial non-resident status" which is about as vague as the dutch can get! What it means they consider me a resident for income tax but as a non resident for other monies. I have a local dutch tax person looking into this.

Thanks to the replies so far. I will look into the idea of getting a company in Malta.

[PRC1964]

I'd suggest you contact these chaps http://www.formacogibraltar.com/ and see what they advise.