Living and Working Overseas, Freelance Opportunity in UK

[fiesta321]

I have a question and would like to get a general consensus to see if this is a possibility or a non-starter.

I live outside of UK in a non-EU country. I work full time and pay local tax. I am not a UK resident and do not have my primary residence there. I would potentially like to do a small amount of freelance work (proofreading type stuff) in UK to top up my income. I estimate that this would earn me no more than £5,000 per year initially.

Will this cause me a tax headache in terms of doing UK tax return (which I am currently not required to do)? As the amount is likely to be under the tax-free personal allowance (currently £11,500) will I have do pay tax on these earnings?

[sgrimshaw]

If it is proof reading will you do the work actually in the UK or remotely?

In which country are you Tax Resident?

[fiesta321]

I am resident in Switzerland. I pay taxes here. I would not return to UK at all for the work, all would be done remotely.

[sgrimshaw]

If you invoice the UK customer as a business (sole Trader) from Switzerland then the only Tax considerations should be in Switzerland.

There is no with-holding tax on this type of work performed in the UK.

[fiesta321]

That's really helpful, thanks for that. Does the same apply even if I'm paid in GBP to a UK bank account? I feel trying to get UK customers (individuals) to pay to my Swiss account may cause issues.

[sgrimshaw]

fiesta321 said:

That's really helpful, thanks for that. Does the same apply even if I'm paid in GBP to a UK bank account? I feel trying to get UK customers (individuals) to pay to my Swiss account may cause issues.

Things will get more complicated for you if you want a UK bank account for sure ... first challenge will be finding a bank to open the account for you.

Will your customers know you live in Switzerland?

It's really not difficult to make payments to overseas accounts from the UK.

Not suggesting this as the best way ... but international payments are easy with Pay Pal and the like if your customers are individuals.

[anonymous-user]

Set up a non resident sterling account on the Isle of Man, and they can deal with you through their usual payment process for sterling. I've just done the same thing to receive a UK pension, Barclays can do it over the phone, they wen't interested if I just wanted to receive and transfer money but I didn't need the UK money on a regular basis and I wanted an interest paying account as I intended the money to sit there and be transferred every year or so.