SA109 Residence Status Boxes 16 17 18

[Advice4DTA]

Hi,
I'm a bit confused with boxes 16 17 18 on the SA109 Residence Status in self assessment.

I am British Citizen UK non tax resident, but am tax resident in Thailand but (not a permanent resident).

I have always ticked box 16 - entitled to claim personal allowances as a non resident (because I'm a British Citizen).
in Box 17 I have filled in THA, and in box 18 Filled in THA also (I think HMRC advised me to do this years ago). But when you read the Q it says "Enter the code for the country or countries of which you are a national and/or resident" - so this sounds to me like I should put GBR.

I checked with HMRC chat again and they said put THA in 17 and 18 - "put the code for the country which you are resident", so they are saying put the same in both boxes, which to me does not match what the question is asking, I asked twice and got the same answer.

I read that technically GBR in 17 is correct but HMRC are ok with THA in both as it satisfies the requirement for the software, both answers result in the same outcome which is to grant personal allowance in the calculation and result in the same tax tax calculation, so HMRC will accept either way.

Confusing.

[AGoodman]

I agree with you. The whole purpose of box 17 is to establish why you have a right to a personal allowance and, in your case, that is because of your British nationality. Thailand is irrelevant (some tax treaties grant citizens of the other country a personal allowance - UK/Thailand is not one of them). Putting Thailand in Box 17 should therefore kick up an error.

All that said, I've no experience with this and there is something to be said for sticking with a system if it works. Others may have some actual knowledge!

[Advice4DTA]

I agree with you. The whole purpose of box 17 is to establish why you have a right to a personal allowance and, in your case, that is because of your British nationality. Thailand is irrelevant (some tax treaties grant citizens of the other country a personal allowance - UK/Thailand is not one of them). Putting Thailand in Box 17 should therefore kick up an error.

All that said, I've no experience with this and there is something to be said for sticking with a system if it works. Others may have some actual knowledge!

o
Thanks, yes I'm tempted to to keep it the same as I've done it before and that is what HMRC have advised me to do, ticking 16 and THA in 17 & 18.
If you look at the HMRC notes there is a long list of the country codes but GBR is not listed, perhaps thats causing the confusion. I also though maybe could keep THA (as HMRC say) but also include GBR as well as it does say national and/or resident

[AGoodman]

I can't really help either way.

But because I'm a pedant, I had to mention that GBR does appear on p.8 under United Kingdom

[Advice4DTA]

I can't really help either way.

But because I'm a pedant, I had to mention that GBR does appear on p.8 under United Kingdom

Thanks for your help.

I was sure I didn't see GBR, so I checked again and I didn't but I was looking at the notes for 21/22 which I had printed out in my file, but if I look on the 24/25 notes page RRN8 does as you say show GBR.

Anyway I'm still not really sure what to do. HMRC in online message said to put THA in 17 and they didn't give that answer straight away they had to go away and find out and then came back to me later with the answer: "You should enter the country code in box 17 to claim the UK personal allowance, where you are tax resident in the tax year. You should have also ticked box 15 or 16.
You should also enter the same three lettered country code in box 18".

In the past I put THA (as advised by HMRC), but in box 40 it says you can add other information if you have ticked box 16 (which I did) so I always write "Box 16 entitled to claim personal allowances as a non resident in the UK, because I'm a British citizen".

I will wait to hear of any other opinions, but I guess I need to do what HMRC informed, It makes no difference to the calculation anyway as doing it this way still gives my allowance from ticking box 16.