Uktaxpayer

Sorry, forgot to add that I was born in The Netherlands, am a Dutch citizen and have a Dutch passport. Until the Dutch government gets a bit less uptight about dual nationality (The Netherlands are one of the few countries in the world that don't allow this) I won't apply for British citizenship, because I don't want to lose my EU citizenship. I guess with the Government they currently have there this is not likely to happen any time soon, unfortunately.

I never heard of this 25k threshold. I'm Dutch and have lived in the UK for the last 33 years. When applying for the 'vrijstelling' you have to prove that you pay the tax in the UK over your Dutch income. This involves copying your UK tax return and sending it off to the Belastingdienst. A bit tedious, because they want a hardcopy - rather silly because the hardcopy is just a printout of the digital HMRC file that I made in my local library. They ought to join the 21st century and let us email the actual file to them. The last time I did this (earlier this year) they gave me the 'vrijstelling' for both my Dutch workplace pension and my AOW in one go, so at least that is working as it should. I also got it back in just a week or two. Compare that to HMRC's response to a written question - I'm still waiting 6 months later. Nobody has ever bothered me about my total Dutch pension being above 25k (Euros and Sterling). Why did you investigate this?

I am also receiving a pension from The Netherlands, and it is over £25k. I have requested the Belastingdienst to receive the money tax-free into my UK bank account, and I pay the tax in the UK using self-assessment. No issues, except that you have to repeat the request every 5 years.

Just to add something: this morning I phoned HMRC again to talk through this. After waiting for 40 minutes I got connected to a person. She asked some quetions about my interest income, then said she put me on hold to check something, and left me waiting for 15 minutes - and then I got a message saying 'thank you for your call' and the call was ended from their end. Just like that. So I've wasted another hour of my life. What an appalling level of service this is, and I still don't understand my tax code calculation.

I'm trying to understand my tax free amount calculation. I submitted some changes to HMRC to make sure that my PAYE deductions cover my interest and dividend income. They made the changes and send me a new Tax Code, and on their website I can look at the calculation. I don't uderstand it. They show my tax free amount, then the additions for pension payments and gift aid, and finally the deductions for extra income like State Pension, rent, interest and dividend. At the end it shows my new tax free amount. So far so good. The problem is that they start off with a tax-free amount of only £6,500 instead of £12,500, and so the final tax free amout and tax code is completely wrong. Now, my adjusted Net Income is just a few hundred punds over £100,000 so I get that the starting tax free amount is going to be a bit less than £12,500, but surely not half? I tried phoning about this, and after waiting for 40 minutes I got through to a lady, only for the connection to be cut after just a few words were spoken. We had barely said hello. I just can't face having to go through this interminable wait again, so I thought I'd ask here. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious?