I am a British citizen who has been living in the U.S.A illegally for 33 yrs, I have a new British Passport and want to return to the UK to live, do I need a visa or can I just buy a ticket and come home????? Please Help?

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• i agree.. as long as you are citizen of UK, you can go home .

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  by Sleepyhead on November 8th, 2007

• I would have to wonder about a possible tax situation upon arrival though. After all, Anon was a UK citizen for all those 33 years and will have a big hole in their tax file, unless they kept it up.

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  by scubabob on November 8th, 2007

• I am not sure about the tax situation in UK but in some country, if you are out of the country and tell that to the tax department, u r not liable to pay anything, the tax is only if you work inside the country.

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  by Sleepyhead on November 8th, 2007

• Actually, there may indeed be arrears for personal income tax, unless it was paid for the previous year's work and whatever was forthcoming in the new tax year before they left for the States.

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  by scubabob on November 8th, 2007

• u r right scubabob, If they did not pay tax before leaving UK, then they will have to pay when they go back to UK..

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  by Sleepyhead on November 8th, 2007

• If they wernt living in this country all those years they will only have to pay tax when they start a job here they would need to tell employment agency they was abroad

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  by pagan-babe on November 9th, 2007

• My point is that unless they had properly prepared for this move, there may be outstanding issues when they arrived home. You are forgetting that all income taxes everywhere, have a year start and end date. If they were employed after their last filing, in the UK, then moved to the States, they are in arrears and after 33 years with compounded interest, that could be a whopper of a bill. It's something to consider and not to just assume is gonna be ok. If that was a Canadian citizen, I can GUARANTEE you that RevCan would be more than happy to jump them the second they touched down.

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  by scubabob on November 9th, 2007

• Unless the tax evasion is considered a criminal offense (still unlikely) Her Majesties Revenue & Customs cannot try to collect more than 6 years of income tax arrears. It's not great, but it's better than 33! Civil Law in the UK prevents any payment after that time in a non-criminal case. As long as he's paid tax in the USA and can prove it, he's likely to be left alone back here. The UK government wouldn't be interested unless the amounts were significant.

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  by MrWitch on November 9th, 2007

• Thanks for the clarification on UK law. I knew that there wasn't going to be any exemption.

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  by scubabob on November 9th, 2007

• People may be getting confused with the Tax Agreements which operate between most countries. It's likely however that Anon can just return and start working. No-one's likely to check his background, certainly not on tax matters. Only if this person is self employed and returns in the middle of a UK tax year and then works in a self employed capacity before the end of it will their earnings in the USA become interesting (and then only up to the previous April 5th).

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  by MrWitch on November 9th, 2007

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• Good question! :)

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  by Stableboy on November 9th, 2007

• What are you implying SB? ;-)

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  by Carmella on November 9th, 2007

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