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Bon Journal

Club 100 nonresidents

In the UK, you can be resident for tax purposes but not resident for immigration purposes. You can be resident but not ordinarily resident. You can also be resident, ordinarily resident, but not domiciled. You can also be not resident and not domiciled.

This is all very confusing for foreigners who live in this country and contribute towards the productivity of the whole.

Yesterday I spent about an hour checking my passport and bank statements to figure out just how many days I was in the country in the last tax year. If you're away for more than 183 days, then you can skip GO and collect your $200.

As it turned out, I was outside the country on eleven trips abroad for more than 130 days but less than 183. So I don't qualify. And yes, I have to pay lots of tax.

My professor friend claimed that he made about 38 overseas trips last year. Recently I met a jetsetter who travelled on average 4 to 5 times a week for the last ten years. These statistics are quite frightening. In comparison, I am just a toddler, learning to walk. Apparently, you qualify to join the Club 100 if you've been to more than 100 countries in your life.

More than ten years ago I chose the thicker passport over the thinner one in anticipation of frequent travels. When it expired recently, I was sad to discover that less than half of the 96 pages were filled. Immigration officers have a tendency to stamp on full pages or not to stamp at all.

Given the squeeze in my travel budget, it's become an even taller order to qualify for Club 100 and to become nonresident for tax purposes.

6 September 2001