Declaring myself as non-dom

[pawelx]

I have posted similar question as part of an old thread before, so please excuse double-posting.
I have been in the UK for 2.5 years, don't own property here, was born to parents who were not UK citizens and I am not a UK citizen myself.

(1) Just to clarify on the "claiming remittance" part, is this something that I do at the _end_ of the tax year?
So the scenario would be: I open my offshore savings account this week, but only when I need to fill out the self-assessment for 2008 (i.e. early 2009) will I need to declare myself as non-dom - correct? And it is indeed only a matter of ticking some boxes on self-assessment to declare myself non-dom (this is what you refer to as "claiming remittance"?).

(2) In one of my previous posts someone suggested that I will lose allowances if I declare myself non-dom. Am I correct in thinking that it is only the annual personal allowance on £5435 of my income (not counting the CGT allowance) so I stand to lose 18% of 5435 = 978£ if I declare myself non-dom?

Thank you for your help and answers.

[pawelx]

Correction I think it is 22% of £ 5,435 i.e. losing £ 1,196 in lost allowance.