Does it matter to inform your employer if you move to another country

It matters a lot... there are potentially big repercussions for you and them from a tax, social security, employment law and, depending on the country, immigration point of view.

People do these things all the times without having a clue only to find out months / years later the impact he has on them.

Some also go undetected and get away with it...

It is very important to inform your employer! I totally agree with @GlobalTaxServices. It has so many consequences, and I´m sure that the employer will find out in most cases

Yes, it does matter because your residency status changes and things associated with this become matters of concern for HMRC, for example, if you're in your company pension scheme, that is part-funded by tax deductions (you pay less on pension contributions); if you receive healthcare benefits, again is income, in fact, most "allowances" paid by your employer would be regarded as straight income in many countries.  Depending on the country, "tax" means different things; in the UK we pay National Insurance on income over a specific threshold, in the Netherlands, they pay social taxes at a much higher rate on everything up to a specific ceiling.

Then there's your employment contract; is it legal in the country where you're now resident?  What happens if you hurt somebody while working; does your company 3rd party insurance cover you for it.  What about holidays and holiday pay, pensions, sickness insurance.

If you want to move to another country, then get a job there.

Thanks for your responses.

Some responses didn't seem to get what I said. Ofcourse the HMRC is informed. But my question pertains to the employer.

Someone had once told me that as long as you inform the HMRC, than HMRC will provide you with a tax code.

Than your employer uses that tax code, and then the employer makes the appropriate payment of your salary, contributions and taxes according to that tax code.

The question is will the changed tax code raise concerns for the employer.

"If you want to move to another country, then get a job there."

This statement doesn't really make sense anymore since remote jobs are fully work from home. Why quit your job and get another job and work from home? It doesn't make sense.

In terms of injury, that is more likely to happen in manul labour jobs, or job involving interactions with customers. My job doesn't involve interacting with anybody and it is just me on the computer.

Also, what if I just want to spend one year travelling the world, so I can work 9 - 5 and enjoy the evenings and the weekends exploring the city, why I need to inform everybody if I am intending to come back to the UK?

Also, not having to pay for pension contributions would actually mean I get to keep more of the money for the salary which is even better, so would be happy to do that.

Your mind appears to be made up, however.

Most employers payroll system is linked directly to HMRC (PAYE), any changes made by either end will be flagged at the other end, so if you notify HMRC of additional income, for example, it affects your tax code overall, so they will notify whoever does your payroll.  Where I last worked, the payroll system produced a daily report of noteworthy events, mainly aimed at identifying illegal workers, so It's more a question of how effective your boss is at administering his/her/its payroll.

As you describe it, you may need to register with the authorities, for example, if you go anywhere in the EU, all member countries except Ireland have a national registration system, after so many days you will become a resident there and have to register, in doing so you would become known to that countries tax system.  The EU Schengen visa does make provision for people to conduct business while travelling, but it's only valid for 90 days out of 180, so after 90 days, you would have to leave the Schengen zone and not return for a further 90.

Your Forum info tells us you're interested in the USA, I definitely would not recommend you doing what you're contemplating over there, it's both a State and Federal offence for a non-citizen to work in the USA without the specific permission from the Department of Homeland Security that you are authorised to work there.  They would catch you in any roadside check.

You could try asking your boss?

Thanks for the info Cynic.

Like I said, I don't have a problem with informing HMRC or the authorities in the country I am in for tax purposes. In fact, that is the whole point of the question.

I know the UK has tests such as the UK resident test and the overseas resident test.
I also know that you become tax resident in the country you are currently resident based on their requirements.

In fact the whole point of me asking this question is because I am wondering, if one was to move to another country where the taxes are lower and become tax resident there. For someone to accomplish this, registering with the authorities in that country(foreign) with the lower taxes would be a delight. So in this sense, registering is beneficial to me anyway if I can also fulfill the requirements and not be UK tax resident anymore.

So like I said, the only problem than is the employer, for contractual reasons. Not breaking any law if I am reporting to HMRC and the tax authorities of the country I am living in. If I didn't report to the HMRC I would still be paying UK taxes when I wouldn't need to, and becoming tax resident in a country with lower taxes(or possibly even no income taxes) would be a positive event.

So basically it all comes down to the employer. I wouldn't want to hurt my relationship with my employer or get fired.

I asked if is possible without informing employer, or how it would affect them. They would receive the tax code and make proper payment for employee anyway.

If I told my employer I am moving to Bulgaria for example where the taxes and living expeses and rent are lower and then they might tell me that they will reduce my salary, I would be pretty pissed off. The whole point of leaving my life, friends and family in the UK behind and making that sacrifice would be for financial purposes. But from the companies point of view, they might decide to look at what the average salary is in Bulgaria, and from their point of view feel like they are in the right, and come up with a rhetoric that sounds logical to them and probably also to other greedy business people, would agree to why it should be reduced.

Ofcourse upon hearing this information, will make it pointless to leave the country, and I would just head back to the UK, where the company would have to keep paying the same salary without reducing anything. I just find this logic very greedy and even evil, that for something that doesn't really affect the company they would want to do that. At the end of the day, what the payment that the company makes is the same. The difference is, for the people(employees), it can make a huge difference in the quality of their lives by saving any kind of money, whereas the company is concerned about their bottom lines, profits and margins. Yes, I understand(you will probably say), "they are a business and it's not personal", yada yada yada. But I would say it is personal, and if employees are going to be paid that ANYWAY, than it is nothing but GREED by the company.
For the employee however, it is not greed. You really need to be in excess of SOMETHING for that to be the case. Most employees seeking to do this, is in financial lack.

If you are going to start explaining to me that a company is liable etc, an employee presence in another country might mean the company needs to pay taxes to that country, well than here is the case: We are talking about countries where their taxes are lower than the country the company is operating in. Heck, I might even consider a country like Cayman Islands or even Dubai. Countries where most businesses from overseas (foreign countries) open offices because they save on taxes. So what is the excuse for a company to make a problem, if they won't even be liable to pay taxes due to the employees presence there.
Obviously, the employee that is seeking better tax, or no tax countries, will also potentially be good for business.

Hello there  - MikeGreo
You have raised a valid point  - Should you inform your employer if you move to another country ?
Would it be a good idea to ask HMRC ? You could say you are thinking about working overseas remotely & see what they say/advise. 

I can only say the following: My god-daughter has decided to follow her partner overseas.  She did have to ask her employer if it would be possible to work remotely ?
They allowed her to do so. I do not know her tax implications though.
Her partner's employers took care of everything to facilitate travel/health insurance/accommodation/visa for both of them.

Is it the latest Premium visa that you are referring to ? Some countries are offering this to attract more income. This would apply mainly to someone with their own business who can work remotely from another country & yes there are some caveats regarding taxes.
Your idea is very good & wish you good luck to achieve it.
Regards
Rick

MikeGreo wrote:

Thanks for the info Cynic.

Like I said, I don't have a problem with informing HMRC or the authorities in the country I am in for tax purposes. In fact, that is the whole point of the question.

Except you don't get to choose, the law already decided that and where you pay tax is based worldwide on where you live for more than 183 days of the tax year.  So, if you move to Bulgaria, you have to register and are then living under Bulgarian law.  The good news is that unless you start country hopping to try and avoid paying taxes anywhere, HMRC will no longer have any interest in you, they will not assess you for any taxes in the UK unless it's for one of the few items that HMRC will retain primacy (state-funded pensions being one of them).  You should also consider the National Insurance aspect of UK payroll, your boss will continue to deduct that from your salary, you will pay it regardless, it's why they don't classify it as a tax.  So, you will pay NI, which is good for your State Pension when you get to that age, but perhaps not so good for Healthcare cover as you will no longer be eligible for NHS treatment (you need to be legally resident in the UK for that) and in many countries, you won't be able to join their national scheme as you won't be paying into their social schemes (as many are now finding out), so you need to add to your analysis the cost of private healthcare insurance.

So it's not the system that's against you, you just need to tell your boss and I don't think I can help you with that.

One last word of advice, when I did what you are contemplating the differing tax years adopted by different countries made life very exciting.  The UK runs from Apr > Mar, the rest of the world (so it seems) runs from Jan > Dec.  Because tax means different things in different countries, the various tax treaties around the world only refer to "income tax", not social taxes.  So in the UK, you pay National Insurance, in the Netherlands, you pay social taxes in addition to income tax and they are very specific about what each tax covers; these taxes are horrendous (27%) when assessed alone and without a salary in that country to offset them against.  It was bad enough to make us decide to move back to the UK.

I just thought of another last word of advice.  When you register in countries where they do this, you also give them access to your bank records and payslips.  When I lived in the Netherlands, not a problem, I had to submit copies anyway every year I submitted a tax return.  You may have a different view, but national authorities are very good at assessing what your bank statement tells them, or probably, more importantly, doesn't tell them.  The various national tax bodies (in my case HMRC and Belastingdienst) did talk to each other.

Whatever, unless you have any further specific questions, I'm out of here.  Good luck in talking to your boss.

Cynic
Expat Team