UK citizen with US foreign client

[thorneny]

I'm a UK citizen who has been living, working and paying tax in the US for the past 5 years. I'm about to move back to the UK and have agreed with my existing employer that I will continue to work with them for the time being in a consulting capacity from the UK. I can't be paid by them in the US because I will be out of employment status on my visa, so my intention had been to work as a sole trader in the UK.

I have never worked as self-employed in the UK before, but from what I'm reading, it appears there is a number of issues with this setup and would really appreciate some help understanding how I could get this setup -
1. I'm required to have more than one client when self employed in the UK?
2. The US company would require some kind of tax status as a UK entity before they could legally pay me
3. I'll need to provide official invoices (if so, what needs to be contained within these invoices to inform HMRC correctly)

I understand by contracting out in this capacity, I would be losing various employer rights (pension etc.) but I'm really only interested in just being able to receive pay for a few months as a consultant until I begin consulting or employment in the UK. Any advice on how to set this up hassle-free would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[GlobalTaxAdviser]

Hi

The only issue perhaps is rather your are employed then self employed especially since you were employed in the US and now employed by the same company in the UK. I don't envisage this a problem since you will register as self employed and pay Tax and National Insurance.

Invoice can be in any format. The US company may ask you to complete some forms to prevent any withholding tax

Kind Regards

GTA

[DavidTreitel]

Sounds to me as though you will be an employed worker; entitled to all of the employment rights set out under local law. Your employer will want advice on its own UK legal & tax obligations; perhaps they can share this advice with you?

Will you remain in the 401(k)?