First a brief background: I’m a citizen of an EU country where up to recently I’ve resided and been employed as a PhD student at a state institute. After finishing the PhD, I’ve moved to UK to work at a university as a postdoc (naturally I’m getting payed by the uni). Now, my former institute keeps me formally employed, but “on leave”. During the last year it continued to pay me salary (as a form of a support stipend, which is a science-ministry’s brain-gain policy). This income has been taxed there as a salary would, and the two countries have a usual double-taxation-avoidance agreement.
Now, I should report my world-income in a self-assessment to UK’s tax-office, given that I should be considered a UK resident for taxation purposes (residing more than 168 days a year here, etc.). I’m all for this, as the alternative – of filing world-income in my home country – would mean paying in arms and legs on my UK earnings, due to a much lower threshold where 40% rate starts to apply back there. I have not had any contact with UK tax authorities so far, and I’m not even sure if they are aware of my existence or residence.
My situation is somewhat specific, but I’ll try to make the questions general. I’m looking for answers with prior experience in reporting world income in UK. I have looked at the tax office’s web-pages so I have some basic idea of what to do, but some questions remain.
1) When filing a self-assessment for world-income, what type of evidence would I need to provide in support of my claim of UK residence-for-tax-purposes? (I’m thinking my rent contract should do.) Also do I have to assert my tax-residence prior to self-assessment or in conjunction with it?
2) Again, when filing for foreign income, how should I file this particular item? Their instructions say I should file this under foreign income AND employment (see Employment notes and Foreign income notes). But filing under employment requires providing PAYE numbers and P45/60 forms, which my institute and I don’t have. I do have an end-of-year salary report issued by the institute, but it is in my native language and formed according to the local tax rules. Can I provide this piece of paper with a translation? Should the translation be authorised? I suspect my situation here is not unique, as any person whose tax-residence is determined by the 168 days rule may find himself with two differently accounted income reports.
3) Say I provide this foreign salary statement, listing monthly payments. How do I convert the income into UK currency? Do I convert each monthly income at the contemporary conversion rate, or do I make a batch conversion at some other date (which?)? Also, what is the official authority that determines the conversion rates for UK?
4) Am I grossly missing on something here, which makes my intended course of action misguided or unwise?