Moving from Ohio to UK in engineering and need advice about UK tax system?

[ali_st]

Hello all!

I have been offered a job at my current company but at their UK branch and I think I am going to take it. I will go from $80,000a year to £60,000 a year in the UK and that’s kind of worrying me. I understand GBP is stronger than USD and basically always has been but that seems like a significant drop. I’ve also been looking at what I’ll actually get after paying tax and all that jazz on it, and according to this UK wage calculator ( salary-calculator,org,uk if someone knows what tax you pay in the UK can they check it and make sure the figure its giving me is right?) it drops down to £42,000 a year, or 3600 a month. If it helps I will be living in London which I understand is very expensive, but hopefully affordable on that salary.

TL;DR, moving to UK, confused about how much money I’ll actually get from 60k p/a?

Thank you!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I would suggest that you would get much better and more reliable answers on this if you ask the HR department of your company what sort of take-home pay you can expect, after taxes.
There are a LOT of international tax issues and no one here has the knowledge to take all of them into account.

Also, please remember that the cost of living in UK is significantly higher than the cost of living in Ohio. However, having experience in a foreign branch sounds exciting and really desirable and worth taking a cut in standard of living in order to have the experience of living in a new country. You may also be able to save in a few areas such as if you can go without a car in UK, which is almost impossible to do in Ohio unless you live and work right downtown in a major city.

 

[BartholomewB]

If you are an American citizen you may find yourself having to pay U.S. income tax in addition to British income tax. At least, that’s the way it used to be years ago – I suggest you check it out. As @Tis_Bearself already said, ask your HR department about it. They’ll know the answer.

It’s been many years since I was in everyday contact with Americans living in London, but back in those days they invariably commented on the high cost of living there, appreciably higher than back home.

 

[TigerLily-1]

If you are an American citizen you may find yourself having to pay U.S. income tax in addition to British income tax.

I checked the Internal Revenue’s website and the above is true. You will need to pay US income tax along with the British income tax. You’ll also need to calculate and report your pay and taxes in US dollars, averaged for the year. It doesn’t seem fair to me.

U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad | Internal Revenue Service

Even though it would be a wonderful opportunity to live in another country, you should talk to your HR department about all of this before accepting because you might not be able to afford living there!