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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

andyc456
Posts:20
Joined:Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:59 pm
Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby andyc456 » Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:14 am

Hi - I am an American citizen who left the UK after assuming dual UK nationality eleven years ago. When does the statute of UK inheritance tax limitations expire on my worldwide (but non-UK) assets?

iwmtaxadvisor
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Joined:Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:12 pm
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Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby iwmtaxadvisor » Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:34 pm

US - UK tax planning is always complex and almost always requires specialist advice because of the myriad of 'gotchas' in the combined legislation. You cannot rely on any casual comment since it is more than possible you would not know what the relevant data is to disclose (no disrespect).
Given that,
UK IHT is charged on persons 'domiciled' in the UK. Domicile is a concept that is fuzzy (in both jurisdictions). But if you were an American national and you left the UK to go back to the USA then you would probably have abandoned your domicile of choice or your 'deemed domicile' in the UK upon leaving, from the UK's point of view. There is no statute of limitations. From the US point of view, you never lost your US 'domicile' as determined for estate duty. There might be grey areas here depending upon what you did, where you lived, how you got dual citizenship and much more: and if there are the UK US Estate and Gift Tax Treaty applies. As you probably know, the UK seeks to apply IHT to uk assets anyway.
There are about 100 UK-US tax specialists in the UK.
Robert Warren
Book a free meeting

andyc456
Posts:20
Joined:Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:59 pm

Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby andyc456 » Tue Feb 23, 2021 1:23 pm

Thanks. Any other interoperations?

maths
Posts:8507
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:25 pm

Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby maths » Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:28 pm

There is no reference to your "domicile" status.

If you do not have a UK domicile of origin (eg born in the UK of UK parents) then on leaving the UK 11 years ago whether you did or did not acquire a UK domicile of choice whilst in the UK this would have been lost on leaving the UK.

If you were deemed UK domiciled at the time of leaving this deed status would have fallen away basically after 3 years.

Bottom line is that basically after 3 years of leaving UK IHT only applies to UK assets (possible not even that under the UK/USA DTA).

andyc456
Posts:20
Joined:Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:59 pm

Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby andyc456 » Tue Feb 23, 2021 6:23 pm

Maths - I lived in the UK as a Non-Dom. So UK never was my domicile. I now reside in Japan. Does UK have a similar agreement with Japan or is that irrelevant given my Non-Dom status.

maths
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Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:25 pm

Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby maths » Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:00 pm

No, there is no IHT double tax agreement between UK and Japan.

However, as you are, and never have been, UK domiciled or deemed domicile UK IHT is only leviable on UK assets.

andyc456
Posts:20
Joined:Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:59 pm

Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby andyc456 » Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:18 pm

Thank you Maths. You've been quite helpful.

DavidTreitel
Posts:271
Joined:Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:31 pm

Re: Inheritance Statute of Limitations for foreign national with dual UK citizenship

Postby DavidTreitel » Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:59 pm

Simply to add that from the perspective of US domestic law that a US citizen is always domiciled in the US for US estate and gift tax purposes. In practice whilst the lifetime estate and gift tax exclusion remains such a large number, this is often a moot point.


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