German Tax Year vs UK Tax Year

[Distressed]

I'm a freelancer and have been registered as such in the UK for several years. Recently I have been working on contracts in Germany but I'm no longer sure where I should be paying my taxes.

I signed a contract a few months of which overlapped into a FY 2007-2008. I filed a tax return this month to pay taxes for this income in the UK. For this FY I have now been in Germany for six months and was told by my UK accountant that as it wasn't longer than 183 days, I would have to file a tax return in the UK for FY 2008-2009.

The issue is that I am now considering signing another contract for six months starting this January (but no longer). As far as the UK FY would be concerned, I would have been out for 9 months. However, as far as the German tax year is concerned, it would be only 6 months of their tax year.

Could anyone advise of the tax implications of this? I'm totally confused by these two different financial years and how it affects which country I'm considered to be resident for tax.

Thanks in advance!

[maths]

You appear to be a sole trader and not an employee.

Unless you worked outside of the UK for a complete UK tax year then you will remain UK resident and liable to UK income tax on your German source earnings; hence need to file UK tax return.

It may be that you should also be paying German tax on the German source earnings (in this case the German tax would reduce any UK tax). This will depend upon the precise manner in which the work was carried out.

The 183 day reference is irrelevant.

There is no need to distnguish between tax years in UK and Germany.