Tax Return - Foreign Income

[Grant5]

Hello there,

This is the first time I've posted, so hopefully this is the right forum. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice for completing my Tax Return for 2008-2009. This is the first time I've been asked to complete one. I'm not self employed, and dont own any property or shares or anything like that, but I was in Australia for a year during half of the tax year, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Anyway, my main question is about income from employment. I checked the notes under the 'Foreign' section, and it says income from foreign employment should be included on the 'Employment' pages. But the problem is that on the 'employment' pages all of the boxes are in pounds sterling, and my income in Australia was in Aussie dollars. Does this mean I need to find out what the exchange rates were back in 2008 and convert my pay into pounds sterling, or do I just cross out the pound sign and write AUD? Also, it asks for things like PAYE reference numbers for my employers, but in Australia they don't have that. Has anyone dealt with this before and can offer some advice??



Any help or advice about the above would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks in advance :)

Grant

[Ray Coman]

Foreign employment income is entered into the Foreign supplement of the Tax Return and not the employment pages, unless it is UK employment carried out abroad.

All figures on the Tax Return should be in UK Sterling, and translated at the prevailing exchange rate.

If you were in Australia during the year, there is a possibility that you may be able to split the tax year for income tax purposes. I would require more information before being able to advise whether this HMRC concession would apply.

[Grant5]

Hi Ray,

thanks a lot for that. I was in the UK from 6 April - 23 September 2008 (170 days I think), and then Australia for the rest of the tax year. Before leaving Australia in September 2009 I completed a Tax Return and was declared 'resident for tax purposes' in Australia for that tax year. Does that signify anything in relation to the split year thing you mentioned? Sorry I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to this sort of thing.

One other thing, does 'prevailing exchange rate' mean the rate on the day I complete the form, or is it the average rate over the entire tax year?

Thanks again for your help

Grant