The UK side of leaving: HMRC, student loans, Child Benefit and your vote

Most UK→UAE checklists start at the Dubai arrivals hall. This one starts earlier, because the departures you don't make — the UK bodies you never told — are the ones that follow you. None of this is exotic: it is four or five notifications, each with its own form and its own deadline, and all of it sits on gov.uk.

This is relocation admin, not tax advice. Confirm every form and deadline on the live gov.uk page before you file.

Tell HMRC you're leaving

HMRC's rule is simple: you must tell them if you're leaving the UK to live abroad permanently, or going to work abroad full-time for at least one full tax year. A standard UK→UAE employment move meets that test. See gov.uk — tax if you leave the UK and come back.

How you tell them depends on whether you already file Self Assessment. If you don't, you complete form P85, and include Parts 2 and 3 of your P45 if you have one. If you do file Self Assessment, you instead complete the residence section (form SA109) of your tax return, which has to be sent by post — though HMRC notes you can still use a P85 if you're going to be working full-time for a UK-based employer.

There's a practical reason to do this promptly rather than at your leisure: telling HMRC lets them work out whether you're due a tax refund for the year you leave, and whether you'll need to pay tax in more than one country. One catch worth knowing before you close your UK bank account: HMRC will only send a refund cheque within the UK, and most cheques can only be paid into a UK bank account held in your name. Keep a UK account open at least until any refund lands.

UK income doesn't stop being taxable

Becoming non-resident doesn't switch off UK tax; it narrows it. In HMRC's words, you usually have to pay tax on your UK income even if you're not a UK resident — pensions, savings interest, wages and, most relevantly for leavers who keep their house, rental income. Confirm on gov.uk — tax on UK income if you live abroad.

If you let out your UK home, HMRC classes you as a non-resident landlord once you live abroad for six months or more a year. By default, your letting agent deducts basic-rate tax from the rent before it reaches you — and if you have no agent and your tenant pays more than £100 a week, the tenant is required to deduct it instead. You can apply to receive your rent gross by sending HMRC form NRL1i, but HMRC won't approve the application if your taxes aren't up to date. Either way, UK rental income means a Self Assessment return, and non-residents can't file through HMRC's standard online service — it's post or approved commercial software. Detail: gov.uk — renting out UK property from abroad.

The Student Loans Company

If you're still repaying a student loan, you must tell the Student Loans Company before you go — the trigger is leaving the UK for more than three months. Repayments don't pause because PAYE stops: you're expected to keep repaying unless you can give proof, such as a recent bank statement, that your overseas income is below the threshold. Ignore this and you can accrue arrears on the account. Of the notifications on this page, this is the one most often missed, because nothing prompts you — your UK payslip deductions simply stop, and the debt quietly builds. Official page: gov.uk — repay your student loan if you leave the UK.

Child Benefit

If you receive Child Benefit, tell the Child Benefit Office if you're going abroad for more than eight weeks. Short absences are covered — up to eight weeks for holidays or business, and up to twelve for family bereavement or medical treatment — but a permanent move to the UAE is neither. The UAE is not among the countries gov.uk lists where payments can continue (those provisions cover certain EU/EEA moves made before 2021, countries with social security agreements such as Canada and New Zealand, and Crown servants posted abroad). See gov.uk — Child Benefit if you move abroad.

Council tax and your vote

Council tax is administered by your local council, and gov.uk doesn't publish a single national rule for notifying them when you leave — so check your own council's website for its moving-out process and final bill arrangements before you hand back the keys.

Your vote, though, travels with you. British citizens who have previously lived in the UK can register as overseas electors and vote in UK elections by post or proxy. The obligation to remember: you must renew your registration every three years to keep voting while living abroad, and your electoral registration office will send reminders. Register before the boxes are packed — it's a five-minute job from a UK sofa and a slower one from a Dubai one. See gov.uk — voting when you're abroad.

None of this is difficult. All of it is dull. Do it in one sitting, the week before you fly.

While you're doing UK-side paperwork, the same week is a good time to sequence document attestation for UAE use. After you land, budget categories live in what the first 90 days actually cost.

Sources

• https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-leaving-coming-back
• https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad
• https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad/rent
• https://www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/leaving-the-uk
• https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-move-abroad
• https://www.gov.uk/voting-when-abroad

Sources linked; human verification in progress.