Moving to the UK

[michy22]

Hi......Im from australia and looking to relocate work to our UK office which is based in based in Tadworth, Surrey. Any suggestions on where to live? I am a 31 year old single girl. Is it worth communting from London or finding something close by? If close by, any ideas of areas that are nice as I know no one yet. Also for any expats living in the UK from Aus.....if I go to the UK to work for just 1 year (company sponsored), whats the deal with tax etc? How do I pay tax and to who? The deal is that I go and work in the UK office for 1 year on a work permit visa and then come back to Australia. Ive been asked to find out about the implications for tax and I have no idea who to ask....any ideas or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Michelle

[MichelleAlison]

Hi Michelle,

Just want to say hi to my namesake and welcome to the forum. Can't help you with any of the information, but hope that you have a good experience in the UK.

Michelle

[STGO]

Hello michy22.
Cant answer all of your questions, but one thing is for certain. You will definately have to pay taxes and NI contributions.

As for the area you want to live in, Surrey is an expensive place, sorry.

Hope you enjoy your stay here in blighty.

[surrey_sue]

Hi michy22, UK tax information is available on HM Revenue & Customs website. If you are classed as an employee, your employer will have to contact their tax office and arrange tax deduction from your salary if any (you will be asked to fill out a form called PAYE). I know someone who worked in the UK for a year and contacted the tax office to claim back (some of?) the tax she'd paid. So it may be worthwhile contacting them to make sure you pay only what you're liable for.

As for the place to live, I guess it depends on what you enjoy. If you choose to live up in London (say, Clapham), it will be more enjoyable with better chance of meeting people, but you will be paying a higher rent and very (or excruciatingly) expensive train fare.

Epsom is a fairly big town with amenities. It has faster train access to London, 40 min as opposed to 60 min from Tadworth which is on a different train line. There is a bus service from Epsom High Street to Tadworth (it takes 20 odd min). Your rent may be higher there compared to the much local area around Tadworth/Kingswood.

Personally I wouldn't go near East Croydon area although it offers good access to London. It's just ...not nice.

Oh, and if you ever come to Tadworth, try Wel House Inn in Mugswell for beer or nice British pub food. It's only 2 miles from Tadworth and is highly recommended

[Akatrin]

Hi Michelle,

I've been flitting over to the UK this year and am going to live over there next year. I've decided to be a commuter. I want to live in a nice area - which is expensive, but a general "rule of thumb" my accountant told me is most people tend to spend about 1/5th of their income on rent. more if they have a morgage. But, thinking about that made choosing a price range much easier, and then I determined a location based on average rental prices.

That said, commuting is expensive compared to Australia :P

as for tax, usually the company will automatically take what it thinks you need to pay, then you sort it out come time to file that tax return (which is when you get that accountant back in..)

[Megami]

Just had to ask - are you Michyj off bookcrossing/library thing?