UK tax for the first time

I was sitting here thinking....unfortunately.....and I started wondering about doing my UK tax for the first time. I kind of figured I might owe a little bit since I sold off a bunch of mutual funds since we moved back in April 2015. Then it hit me that since the funds were in both of our names I would/might get twice the limit before the taxes kicked in. So if we gained less than £22,000 on those sales......don't need to do the UK taxes?

By the way......when did the personal allowance go up to £11K??? I figured it was still £10,500-10,800 or so.

The personal allowance increased to £11,000 for the 2016-17 tax year.

Are your mutual funds US funds, without HMRC reporting status? If so, you will owe income tax on your gains. The tax free capital gains allowance of £11,100 for 2015-16 does not apply.

I moved everything to Vanguard Total Stock market ETF before we moved.....I believe those are a HRMC reporting fund.....which I did after the topic came up on this site.

I moved everything to Vanguard Total Stock market ETF before we moved.....I believe those are a HRMC reporting fund.....which I did after the topic came up on this site.

I believe that you are correct that VTI (CUSIP number 922908769) is an HMRC reporting fund.

Since it is a joint account with your wife I would expect that both of you would need to report the dividends to HMRC from that fund plus the capital gains when you sold the fund. (one half each).  My wife holds VTI so I know that it pays out quarterly dividends which should, I believe, be treated favourably as stock dividends.

We each recently applied on-line for self assessment to get a UTR number and the website said that if you receive taxable foreign income over £300 then you should be filing a self assessment return.  I don't expect my wife to owe HMRC any taxes as the dividends she receives from her VTI and VYM funds are below her taxable income thresholds, but I believe she still has to file since she has foreign income.

ETA
I changed our joint accounts to her name before we left the USA to minimise the taxes since my US pensions put me in the 20% tax bracket.

Before I actually get off my butt and start doing some research......when should I be doing my self assessment? .....which I guess is for April 2015 to April 2016.

Before I actually get off my butt and start doing some research......when should I be doing my self assessment? .....which I guess is for April 2015 to April 2016.

You don't have to complete it until Jan 31st 2017, but I was recommended to do it in the December of the year before so that you have all the data for when you file your US taxes in 2017.

Makes sense.....gives me another 2 months to procrastinate.....Thanks.

Whoa.....just talking to my wife.....she says if you do it online it is then due by the end of Jan 2017.....if you do it by paper, it was due maybe Sept/Oct. Does it matter which you do? Easier one way or another?

Whoa.....just talking to my wife.....she says if you do it online it is then due by the end of Jan 2017.....if you do it by paper, it was due maybe Sept/Oct. Does it matter which you do? Easier one way or another?

I only personally know one person who does self assessment in the UK, a long time friend here in Guisborough, and he always does his on-line in January.  It sounds pretty straightforward compared to a US return, even though he has investment returns to deal with.

PS
Your wife is correct for the timing of a paper return

https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/deadlines

I was going to put it off for a while then......but my wife just gave me the "evil eye"......which means get my butt in gear.... so I better look this stuff through again and at least get comfortable with what I have to turn in. I need to go back over that Vanguard info anyway to see what gains there were.

Whoa.....just talking to my wife.....she says if you do it online it is then due by the end of Jan 2017.....if you do it by paper, it was due maybe Sept/Oct. Does it matter which you do? Easier one way or another?

The paper deadline is October 31st.
I file on paper, I find it much easier to have the forms in front of me. There are instructions which accompany each of the forms so it is fairly straight forward.

When my husband moved here, I thought I would try to do his online as his situation is simpler than mine but it took me no time at all to revert to doing his on paper too.

Also, this year HMRC added an additional layer of security to the online accounts so I couldn't do it online for him even if I wanted to.

It relies on having a British passport along with various other credit history type questions which he is not able to get past.

You should check to see if you can get through the security because if you can't you will have no choice but to file on paper.

Here's a thread I started on the subject. http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=87774.0

Don't forget that if you are going to treaty resource any income or gains arising during 2016 you will want to pay the tax to HMRC by 31 December.

It is likely that a decent number of US citizens in the UK would not want to use HMRCs free online tax return software, as this software does not support the non-residence/ non-dom pages.

Don't forget that if you are going to treaty resource any income or gains arising during 2016 you will want to pay the tax to HMRC by 31 December.

It is likely that a decent number of US citizens in the UK would not want to use HMRCs free online tax return software, as this software does not support the non-residence/ non-dom pages.

At this time the only income we have is my US Govt pension of $1289 month....which supposedly is ignored for taxes in the UK. So I need to figure out what my gains were on the Vanguard fund we sold. I may start taking a smallish amount ($10-20,000K a year) of my Govt TSP retirement account starting in 2017......but I can't remember if that was ignored or not.