RetireJapan

Hi all,

I have a brokerage account in the UK I fund from a UK bank account (registered to a UK address). I occasionally transfer money back to the UK and invest into it - a grand here and there.

It is not an ISA sharedealing account. But to save money on capital gains/dividend tax I was thinking of opening an ISA sharedealing account.

Is there much likelihood of this being discovered? And what would be the consequences?

I hold Japanese PR and will likely live here long term.

ISA accounts are not available to non-residents - so in order to open one you would have to lie and say that you are a resident, and submit the documentation to prove it - and repeat the lie every year. And even if you do have one, as a resident of Japan, Japanese taxes are due on the gains anyway. So you would be lying to the brokerage to avoid UK tax, and lying (by omission) to Japan to avoid Japanese tax.

Not sure what the consequences are, but staying on the right side of the law, especially when it comes to taxation, is probably the best plan.

And remember that PR is permission, not a right, and can be revoked for bad behaviour.

Are you Jeff Vader?

No specialist knowledge, but my immediate thought is it’s not worth it. I guess your chances of getting away with it are pretty good with a U.K. address, though you may run into difficulties proving that you actually live there (utilities/council tax) to open the account. At a minimum if discovered it would be immediate account closure, meaning selling at a time not of your choosing, with any tax benefits nullified. I can also imagine HMRC taking a dim view as it is basically tax fraud. The immediate consequence that would put me off doing it is that I would have a constant low level worry of getting rumbled.

My UK regular (non-ISA) account was closed at short notice once they found out I lived in Japan.

I presume they didn't want to deal with securities regulations here.

So attempting to open an ISA could result in having your existing account shut down as well.

Thanks - yes I don't really want to risk losing the UK brokerage account - which is sneaky in itself - as I basically use it as a retirement fund so hope to keep for another 20 odd years.

When I looked at opening the ISA Sharedealing account they only mentioned needing National Insurance Number, not any further proof of address such as bills - which I cant provide anyway so good to know.