Living in the London-Cambridge axis

[RandBlade]

No, unless it's both a temporary place of work and your employer hasn't rebated your expenses.

EG I used to live and work in Warrington but would once or twice a week commute to Preston. As my primary workplace was Warrington, I could under company policy and tax laws legitimately claim expenses for commuting to Preston. If my company had refused to recompense the commute I could have filed a tax return based on my out of pocket expenses for the commute to Preston, but not my day to day travel to my workplace in Warrington. So if wiggin's contract defined his primary place of work as being in Cambridge but he had to from time to time commute to London then he could file a tax return for travelling to London. If his contract is in London, then not possible.

This is about cars and petrol but its the same for trains I believe (just based on receipts rather than miles): https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-em...age-fuel-costs

[Aimless]

Deducting travel costs from taxes I assume is what he meant.

Yup!

We get to deduct anything over 10,000 SEK/year (880 GBP) even for regular commuting (provided distance > 2km for buses/trains etc or > 5 km for cars, motorcycles etc) so I was wondering if the UK had any similar law.

[RandBlade]

No the idea here is that it's your own responsibility to get to your regular place of work, but if it's an irregular expense then that's OK. Also I believe if your business relocates you then you can claim tax-free expenses or a tax deduction for moving to your new location. Unless you're actually out of pocket there aren't that many regular tax deductions that everyone can apply for that I know of. Personally, I've never filed a tax return, just paid PAYE tax from income and that's that.

[Aimless]

No the idea here is that it's your own responsibility to get to your regular place of work, but if it's an irregular expense then that's OK. Also I believe if your business relocates you then you can claim tax-free expenses or a tax deduction for moving to your new location. Unless you're actually out of pocket there aren't that many regular tax deductions that everyone can apply for that I know of. Personally, I've never filed a tax return, just paid PAYE tax from income and that's that.

That is interesting. Has the UK also completely done away with deductions for mortgage interest payments? For people who just live in their own home I mean.

[RandBlade]

Yes.

[wiggin]

No the idea here is that it's your own responsibility to get to your regular place of work, but if it's an irregular expense then that's OK. Also I believe if your business relocates you then you can claim tax-free expenses or a tax deduction for moving to your new location. Unless you're actually out of pocket there aren't that many regular tax deductions that everyone can apply for that I know of. Personally, I've never filed a tax return, just paid PAYE tax from income and that's that.

Roughly similar rules in the US. Though there are often options to have your employers buy your transit through payroll deduction and thus make it pre-tax money. Depends on some details, though.

I'm leaning towards not doing this just because the salary isn't really high enough but I still need to see the details of their benefit structure.

[Hazir]

No the idea here is that it's your own responsibility to get to your regular place of work, but if it's an irregular expense then that's OK. Also I believe if your business relocates you then you can claim tax-free expenses or a tax deduction for moving to your new location. Unless you're actually out of pocket there aren't that many regular tax deductions that everyone can apply for that I know of. Personally, I've never filed a tax return, just paid PAYE tax from income and that's that.

Isn't travel to your workplace included in the tax-free income (the part under the threshold)? In Holland you don't get to deduct the actual travel costs, but everybody who's got income from work has a higher threshold.

Your employer is allowed to re-imburse your actual travel costs, but if re-imbursement goes above a certain level that becomes taxable income again.

I'm surprised that you did away with deductions for interest paid on mortgages. I wish we had a government with the guts to do the same. But so far all we got over the last decade was some tinkering in the margins.

[Timbuk2]

Roughly similar rules in the US. Though there are often options to have your employers buy your transit through payroll deduction and thus make it pre-tax money. Depends on some details, though.

This is common in the UK too. Most large firms will have an employee provision to buy an annual travel pass/season ticket and deduct from monthly salary.

[RandBlade]

I believe that's simply a loan facility which is given interest and tax free but repayments come from post-tax income not pre-tax income.

[Steely Glint]

UK looking pretty good now, huh?

[Timbuk2]

Between Brexit and Trump, I think wigs is running out of options ....

[wiggin]

UK looking pretty good now, huh?

Between Brexit and Trump, I think wigs is running out of options ....

Yeah, I turned down the job a while ago because my interest in the job and its prestige weren't enough to justify the poor salary and relocation. That, and Brexit is hardly an advertisement for someone interested in relocating there.

As for options, though, there are plenty. I have immediate citizenship waiting for me in one country and my wife could probably finagle EU citizenship through her grandparents, not to mention the obvious Canada option. I'm not seriously considering those because leaving a country in a fit of pique after an embarrassing and possibly disastrous election isn't a particularly useful response; much better is to try to understand why things happened as they did, mitigate the current damage, and try to prevent such occurrences in the future. I am an American citizen, after all, and that privilege carries with it substantial responsibilities as well.

There was something somewhere between heartbreaking and amusing that I heard yesterday - someone's small child got it into his head that this election was about which candidate would 'kill the Jews'. And while I obviously don't think that Jews are in physical danger in the US (any more than usual), it does make me think about the parallel to other countries that faced a truly awful election - a substantial portion of my family is alive because someone 80 years ago decided that they couldn't stick around and try to fix things, and that they needed to move somewhere else. I wonder if I would have the foresight and presence of mind to do the same thing in America were it to come to that. Don't get me wrong - I really don't think this election was anything even remotely comparable, despite some of the panicky rhetoric on the left. But I still wonder.

[Steely Glint]

There was an uptick in racially motivated attacks following Brexit, it will likely be far worse after Trump. I don't think Jews will be targeted, but life is about to get pretty interesting for many Americans.

[Ominous Gamer]

Had a friend share on facebook she's already been verbally harassed twice today for being black.

[Flixy]

Had a friend share on facebook she's already been verbally harassed twice today for being black.

..But is that more or less than usual?

I'd think that if you're highly educated and speak English, you're very employable in most EU countries. We're a high tech company and the vast majority of employees are not dutch, and we almost hired an American last month so apparently visum is not an issue either.

[wiggin]

I'd think that if you're highly educated and speak English, you're very employable in most EU countries. We're a high tech company and the vast majority of employees are not dutch, and we almost hired an American last month so apparently visum is not an issue either.

Yeah, as I've been interviewing in international jobs most of the visa stuff seems to be a formality - no one is ever really concerned about it, other than it taking a month or two. The reverse (skilled workers coming to the US) is not always true, I'm afraid.

[Hazir]

..But is that more or less than usual?

I'd think that if you're highly educated and speak English, you're very employable in most EU countries. We're a high tech company and the vast majority of employees are not dutch, and we almost hired an American last month so apparently visum is not an issue either.

Getting the permit to work is a much bigger deal than just the permission to live here. Even for highly qualified professionals from outside the EU. In the end they get it usually, but they have to jump through a great number of hoops. Included Americans.