Taxes? Nah look at that view!
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Up next on my list about my UK move was taxes. And yes, it’s important, but right now I’m feeling the same about writing it as I do when I sit down to prepare our taxes. Since I can avoid this topic (unlike my taxes) without being penalized by a government agency, I think I shall.
But in case you were hoping for some nuggets about taxes as a US citizen abroad, scroll down to the bottom to get some quick tips before I do a full post at a later date.
There are so many things we love about our home here in the UK, but there is nothing quite as magical as the view.
Built in the 1850s, our home was one of the first built around Birkenhead Park — created only a few years before in 1847. There are six matching yellow sandstone homes in a row, and all of us neighbours call them our castles (well at least a few of us do!). I mean there is a parapet! The park has many claims to fame, one of them being it was the world’s first publicly funded park and another that it is the park that inspired Central Park in New York. I still have New York on my travel wish list, but my hubs and a New Yorker I bumped into one day, both said how similar the parks are.
We overlook this gorgeous park of 226 acres. In the mornings, while opening the almost 200 year old wooden shutters, I watch people walking through the park, and for a moment it’s almost as if they are visiting our estate and we are the Lord and Lady 😂 Downton Abbey here we come.
Unlike the many jokes about it raining all the time in England, the sun comes out most days, and we did have some lovely hot, sunny weather for a few (too short) weeks. Not the crazy California 100+ degree Fahrenheit weather that fries my brain and turns me into a zombie, but more like 70 and 80 degrees that makes you feel like you’re holiday (aka vacation). On these days, we’d retreat down to our basement to the free air conditioning provided by coolness of the underground location. Not even new builds in the UK have actual AC, and I can’t even imagine try to fit ducts into this old solid stonewalled house!
Back to the park, as lord and lady of our domain, we spend many hours at our kitchen table half working and half enjoying the view. Every time the sun pops out from the clouds and the dark shadows of the trees contrast with the sunlit brightness of the green leaves and grass, one of us enviability shouts out “the sun’s out, the sun’s out!” To which Hurley, our pup, immediately jumps up from one of his many daily naps in his nest, to see what all the fuss is about.
Hurley of course is obsessed with the park. We think he thinks it’s his park, and he has been known to get quite put out when a new dog enters without coming to say hello to him. He has his favourite doggie friends, Ted, Dottie, Jack, the list goes on, but most of all he likes splooting in the grass (preferably clover) in the shade, for as long as we’ll let him. We’ve been trying to convince him to sploot next to one of the park benches, but apparently the grass surrounding them isn’t up to his high standards.
Enjoy a collection of pics of our view, the park, and of course our furbaby Hurley. 💛
QUICK TAX TIPS FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS LIVING IN THE UK:
✔️ Even if you live in the UK, you have to file for both US and UK taxes.
✔️ The US and UK have a tax agreement, so you can usually avoid being double taxed (up to a certain income limit).
✔️ The UK tax year is from April 6th to April 5th (I’ll hit you up with the history on that another time).
✔️ You can e-file for a 6 month extension on your US taxes until October 15th.
✔️ If you are self employed and have an LLC, you’ll probably need to cancel the LLC to avoid double taxation (not so fun entity issue).
✔️ If you want some in-depth, sleepy time reading about expat taxes, check out Publication 54 by the IRS.
