Professional Poker Player & Residence Status

[cdn123]

Hello,

I am a professional poker player in London (EU national) and I would like to become a resident in the UK for tax purposes.

I have seen online that I can first apply to get a Certificate of Residence. However, it asks me for a National Insurance number and I don't know if I am eligible to get one without paying for tax. And I have read online that as a poker player, I am exempt of paying for National Insurance. In fact, in order to get a Certificate of Residence, I need to prove that I am paying tax in the UK but the whole reason why I moved here is because UK law makes winnings on poker tax free. I have been paying council tax since I moved here in September 2016.

So, the problem is that I want to become resident so that I can legally not pay income tax on my earnings as a poker player. Does anyone know how I go about doing this?

Thank you

[bd6759]

If you are playing poker in London, and live in the UK, why would you need a certificate of residence?

[cdn123]

Hi thanks for your reply - the reason why is to be able to prove in my home country that I do not need to pay tax as I am officially living in the UK.

[bd6759]

That's really a matter between yourself and the tax authorties of your home country. I cannot see how how HMRC can issue a certificate of residence if they know nothing about you.

[wamstax]

These certificates normally are for showing to your "other country of operation" to prove that income you are generating in that country is not taxable there as you are resident in the UK and the same income is subjected to tax in the UK. So if HMRC do not have any tax record for you such a certificate is going to be an impossibility. I would also be very careful to ensure that you are in fact operating a non-taxable source of income (and can prove it by contemporaneous evidence) otherwise if you have unexplained wealth and presence in the UK with large amounts of money passing through your bank account or purchasing assets HMRC (or some other agency) might think that you are in fact evading tax (possibly in both countries) and/or money laundering.