Moving To/Living In London Megathread - ALL QUESTIONS TO GO HERE

djpbarry

Lefty2Guns wrote: »

Hi,

Being living in London since Feburary.

I am wondering what the story is with Tax back. Would I be due any tax back at the end of the tax year.

I work for an engineering company so I am not self employed.

Any info would be grateful.

thanks in advance.

There are tax calculators available online so you can see how much you should be paying:

http://www.uktaxcalculators.co.uk

But, if you were due any tax back at the end of the tax year, I think HM Revenue & Customs would probably have notified you. Either that, or your employer made the necessary adjustments for you.

tibor

philologos wrote: »

First things first, the tax year ends in April in the UK.

If you earned less than £7,000 in the time before April, you are due all the tax on that money back. For me, I got a letter with the calculations and a cheque automatically in the post from the Revenue.

I think the first £7,000 is tax free every year.

Yup, I'm here since last December and got an automatic refund from HMRC in the post just last week!

berrecka

I have been living in London for the past 4 years. During this time I bought a flat. I am now moving home (Galway) and looking to move all my stuff back too. Its crazy to think that 4 years ago I arrived on an aer arann flight with only a suitcase in my hand and I now am being quoted almost £1500 to ship my stuff home! Anyway, I am trying to figure out if there is a better way of getting my stuff back. As Ill be selling my flat, Ill need to leave it furnished for the next few months after I leave and before the buyers move in Ill have to come back, pack up and ship the lot away.

Ive heard suggestions of getting a pallet or two - does anyone know how this works and how I go about doing so?
Alternatively, I could move it myself - still costly, but it seems that this is a cost that could be shared by linking up with someone moving in the opposite direction (it seems nuts to have empty vans travelling over)
The other thing I thought of was exporters who bring stuff to England and return to Ireland empty.

Any other suggestions would be gratefully recieved too!

Anyway, I hope Im posting this in the right place - if not, let me know.

Rebecca

djpbarry

berrecka wrote: »

I have been living in London for the past 4 years. During this time I bought a flat. I am now moving home (Galway) and looking to move all my stuff back too.

You'll find a lot of "Man with a Van" type services who specialise in moving between Britain and Ireland. For example:

http://www.gomanandvan.co.uk/moving-ireland

harryohh

Hi

I'm moving over to London at the end of next week as I'm starting work a week from Monday. It's in the Camden area. This all happened very quickly.

Just looking for a short term place to stay there until I can find something more permanent.
Where do people search for quick short term accommodation.

First time moving abroad so not really sure how it works.

Thanks

Louche Lad

harryohh wrote: »

Hi

I'm moving over to London at the end of next week as I'm starting work a week from Monday. It's in the Camden area. This all happened very quickly.

Just looking for a short term place to stay there until I can find something more permanent.
Where do people search for quick short term accommodation.

First time moving abroad so not really sure how it works.

Thanks

Maybe try airbnb?

Jack B. Badd

harryohh wrote: »

Just looking for a short term place to stay there until I can find something more permanent.
Where do people search for quick short term accommodation.

When we moved over 5 years ago and found a short-term place on gumtree for the first 2 weeks. You could try there.

11xdee

HI! any advice welcome, I want to move to london. have no job ere in ireland. I have a degree in health and safety and want to find a job in that area!! would it be wise to move over without a job?? where would be the best areas to love in?? thanks

emeraldstar

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056364193

spongebobber

Hi! have just spent 3 hours reading this whole thread and following every link..more informed and more confused.
I think i will make the move in about 4 weeks BUT i really dont know if i can afford it... im scared by posts here, all seem to have much higher budgets!
i have enough to cover the moving costs and accomodation deposit etc... I dont mind about any kind of lifestyle so all i need after rent and bills is commute costs (im not used to this!) and food. im hoping to get paid work relevant to my degree (psych) but i know thats not going to come along easy so ill have to live off a pt retail job (along with doing lots of voluntary work) for a while... so say 120-150 pounds a week.. im not asking is it gunna be comfortable, it will only be for a few months, but is it at all realistic to get rent+living from that in london? (dont know what part ill find work in, ideally living in zone 2 but ill leave that up to ye?)
thanks :-)

Fysh

spongebobber wrote: »

Hi! have just spent 3 hours reading this whole thread and following every link..more informed and more confused.
I think i will make the move in about 4 weeks BUT i really dont know if i can afford it... im scared by posts here, all seem to have much higher budgets!
i have enough to cover the moving costs and accomodation deposit etc... I dont mind about any kind of lifestyle so all i need after rent and bills is commute costs (im not used to this!) and food. im hoping to get paid work relevant to my degree (psych) but i know thats not going to come along easy so ill have to live off a pt retail job (along with doing lots of voluntary work) for a while... so say 120-150 pounds a week.. im not asking is it gunna be comfortable, it will only be for a few months, but is it at all realistic to get rent+living from that in london? (dont know what part ill find work in, ideally living in zone 2 but ill leave that up to ye?)
thanks :-)

Living on £600 or so a month is going to be a real challenge, especially if it's Zone 2 you're aiming for. And unfortunately even if you go out towards the outer parts of Zone 3, your transport costs will still be going up.

Right now students are coming back to college/getting ready to start first year, so demand for affordable houseshare space is going to be astonishingly high. Rent and bills have been going up over the last couple of years as well. Planning to live off a part-time job is unrealistic, unless you can land exceptionally well-paid part time work.

Jack B. Badd

Fysh wrote: »

Living on £600 or so a month is going to be a real challenge, especially if it's Zone 2 you're aiming for. And unfortunately even if you go out towards the outer parts of Zone 3, your transport costs will still be going up.

Right now students are coming back to college/getting ready to start first year, so demand for affordable houseshare space is going to be astonishingly high. Rent and bills have been going up over the last couple of years as well. Planning to live off a part-time job is unrealistic, unless you can land exceptionally well-paid part time work.

Bear in mind that retail jobs are not particularly easy to find in London at the moment and there are a lot of people looking. Do you have one lined up and/or do you have experience in retail?

I think you need to determine a reasonable budget including one-off costs like moving costs & deposit and ongoing - rent (have a look around online to see what kinds of rents are expected in different areas), council tax, bills, travel, food, misc. You'll need to do a fair bit of research to get this info. Once that's done, determine how much you need to earn to afford this - check out http://listentotaxman.com/ to see how much you're going to lose in tax. Then have a look to see what's available for this wage, is there retail work that will pay this much and do you have a reasonable chance of getting one of these jobs?

steve9859

spongebobber wrote: »

Hi! have just spent 3 hours reading this whole thread and following every link..more informed and more confused.
I think i will make the move in about 4 weeks BUT i really dont know if i can afford it... im scared by posts here, all seem to have much higher budgets!
i have enough to cover the moving costs and accomodation deposit etc... I dont mind about any kind of lifestyle so all i need after rent and bills is commute costs (im not used to this!) and food. im hoping to get paid work relevant to my degree (psych) but i know thats not going to come along easy so ill have to live off a pt retail job (along with doing lots of voluntary work) for a while... so say 120-150 pounds a week.. im not asking is it gunna be comfortable, it will only be for a few months, but is it at all realistic to get rent+living from that in london? (dont know what part ill find work in, ideally living in zone 2 but ill leave that up to ye?)
thanks :-)

OK, here's my tuppence worth:

I am discounting moving and deposit costs as you say that you have those covered. My initial reaction to your budget was that it just wasn't doable, and that you shouldn't even bother.....but looking at it a bit further, it can work on your budget if you are not fussy.

For a rent of max £75 a week (which is all you are going to want to pay), you will be likely be looking at either a room-share (not a flat share, but a room-share) or taking a box room as a lodger in a family home. Check out www.spareroom.co.uk, put in your price parameters (I put in £50 to £75 per week) and you will find a good few places. Gumtree will be good place to look, but spareroom illustrates prices and areas very well...so good for information purposes. Not many options are in zone 2 (only really small room-shares exist in the city)....most are in north and east London. And it will be a bun-fight getting these places I imagine, so you're going to have to play the numbers game....they will turn over very fast. How you find somewhere without being in London to meet the flatmates / landlords, I don't know....you're going to have to find a sofa to crash on for a few days

Forget travelling on the tube on that budget. Using the tube every day will eat through your spare cash like you wouldn't believe... You will be using the bus a lot on your budget....so check bus routes from where you are looking. The bus system in London is largely overlooked by professionals, but is actually very good.

As for having enough cash to do anything fun at weekends, don't worry too much about that. Great thing about London is the parks, the museums, the south bank, just exploring around the city is all free. Just don't expect to be able to afford a drink in China Whites any time soon!

Thought it can be done, it's going to be a tough life, with limited socialising opportunities, so I'd question why you really want to make the move

djpbarry

spongebobber wrote: »

Hi! have just spent 3 hours reading this whole thread and following every link..more informed and more confused.
I think i will make the move in about 4 weeks BUT i really dont know if i can afford it... im scared by posts here, all seem to have much higher budgets!
i have enough to cover the moving costs and accomodation deposit etc... I dont mind about any kind of lifestyle so all i need after rent and bills is commute costs (im not used to this!) and food. im hoping to get paid work relevant to my degree (psych) but i know thats not going to come along easy so ill have to live off a pt retail job (along with doing lots of voluntary work) for a while... so say 120-150 pounds a week.. im not asking is it gunna be comfortable, it will only be for a few months, but is it at all realistic to get rent+living from that in london? (dont know what part ill find work in, ideally living in zone 2 but ill leave that up to ye?)
thanks :-)

The big question in my mind having read this is ‘why?’

As said above, it might be possible to get by based on what you’ve described (although, personally, I’m very sceptical), but even if you manage it, you will be utterly, utterly miserable. Sure, there are free things to do in London, but you have to get to them, because London is big. Real big. And sure, buses in London are good and they’re frequently overlooked, but they’re obviously only as fast as the traffic is moving, which is often very slowly in around central London.

All in all, moving to London to work part-time in retail (why part-time?!?) just doesn’t make any sense. Besides, London really doesn't strike me as the best place in the world to be searching for a job related to Psychology? What kind of work do you hope to be doing in the long-term?

bazpaul1

Hey guys,

I'm doing the big move in a week and a friend said that his work sorted something out for him, where he didnt pay tax for the first six months?

I have scoured the net and cant find anything to this effect.

Can anyone comment on this?

I also heard something that if you earn less that £7000 before the new tax year, you get the tax paid on that, back.

---

so what if you earn £7500, you dont get any of the tax back????

Cheers!!!

Jack B. Badd

bazpaul1 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'm doing the big move in a week and a friend said that his work sorted something out for him, where he didnt pay tax for the first six months?

I have scoured the net and cant find anything to this effect.

Can anyone comment on this?

It's sounds unlikely tbh.

bazpaul1 wrote: »

I also heard something that if you earn less that £7000 before the new tax year, you get the tax paid on that, back.

---

so what if you earn £7500, you dont get any of the tax back????

Cheers!!!

The tax free allowance in the UK is approx. £8k - see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm - so you shouldn't be paying any tax if you earn less than this. If you earn more than that, you need to pay tax. Depending on how you earn over the year, you may be taxed more or less than you should be. If this is the case, the HMRC will contact you and advise you that you will be taxed further or refunded. Have a look around the HMRC website or http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm, it contains all the info you need on working and paying tax in the UK.

bazpaul1

yeh i read all that before, i know it sounds crazy!! But he said he paid no tac for the first six months!!! Mad!!

Feathers

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

It's sounds unlikely tbh.



The tax free allowance in the UK is approx. £8k - see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm - so you shouldn't be paying any tax if you earn less than this. If you earn more than that, you need to pay tax. Depending on how you earn over the year, you may be taxed more or less than you should be. If this is the case, the HMRC will contact you and advise you that you will be taxed further or refunded. Have a look around the HMRC website or http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm, it contains all the info you need on working and paying tax in the UK.

Just to keep in mind as well that the tax year over here is April – March, not January – December.

Topcat1234

Hihi. I recently relocated from Ireland to London. Brixton in fact. Found the room fairly easy(on gumtree) and in fact finding rooms pretty easy to come by generally but that may change with the students coming bk soon. I'm wondering about work though- and people's experiences using 1,recruitment agencies 2, job sites 3,Gumtree 4, Direct to banks/companies etc..

Just for a lil perspective I have an undergrad in Economics and MSc in Management. With a little experience in credit control (ie ringing poor souls to pay their bills) & Property rentals. Wondering if anyone who came over with similar qualifications and without a 2:1 :-( has any suggestions, recommendations or experiences they'd like to share. I'd especially love to hear some positive stories!! lool

I was looking forward to getting to the meet-up last night for a chat but something came up at the last minute unfortunately. Shame. Wipe out.

Thanks for reading this guys...

djpbarry

Topcat1234 wrote: »

I'm wondering about work though- and people's experiences using 1,recruitment agencies 2, job sites 3,Gumtree 4, Direct to banks/companies etc..

I work in a completely different field, but I would be inclined to avoid agencies whenever possible. Job sites like Monster I would also be inclined to avoid, but it's no harm to have a look. Option number 4 - contacting companies directly - is always the best way to go. I would suggest you do a little research and find some companies you'd be interested in working for. Hopefully they'll have vacancies advertised. If not, find relevant individuals within the company to send a CV and cover letter to. Maybe you already know people working in similar industry positions in the UK or Ireland? They might be able to suggest individuals for you to ring/email. Exploit your contacts!

steve9859

Topcat1234 wrote: »

Hihi. I recently relocated from Ireland to London. Brixton in fact. Found the room fairly easy(on gumtree) and in fact finding rooms pretty easy to come by generally but that may change with the students coming bk soon. I'm wondering about work though- and people's experiences using 1,recruitment agencies 2, job sites 3,Gumtree 4, Direct to banks/companies etc..

Just for a lil perspective I have an undergrad in Economics and MSc in Management. With a little experience in credit control (ie ringing poor souls to pay their bills) & Property rentals. Wondering if anyone who came over with similar qualifications and without a 2:1 :-( has any suggestions, recommendations or experiences they'd like to share. I'd especially love to hear some positive stories!! lool

I was looking forward to getting to the meet-up last night for a chat but something came up at the last minute unfortunately. Shame. Wipe out.

Thanks for reading this guys...

LinkedIn. It is becoming increasingly important. It seems that more and more jobs are appearing only on LinkedIn now, especially in banking.

My advice (which worked well for me and others that I know).....use efinancialcareers.co.uk to find the jobs (almost all finance jobs are on there, and you'll find credit control type jobs), then use LinkedIn to track down the relevant people. You'll have to pay for basic subscription to be able to mail people not in your network. Large corporates also stick their vacancies direct to their corporate page on LinkedIn.

Spend a long time getting your profile exactly right. In a nutshell, LinkedIn is increasingly where it's at....and without a strong LinkedIn profile, you are definitely on the back foot.

Edit: it doesn't replace a good cv of course, but the contact and communication with the right people is key, and LinkedIn facilitates that....

djpbarry

bazpaul1 wrote: »

yeh i read all that before, i know it sounds crazy!! But he said he paid no tac for the first six months!!! Mad!!

Then he was probably doing something illegal.

gerbilgranny

As with the Irish tax system, it could be that he commenced work in the middle of the tax year. If he didn't declare any overseas income, or was entitled to 'split-year treatment', then he would have accumulated six months' tax allowance and so may not be liable for tax on his earnings until he reached a certain threshold. In the same way as if you left your job in Ireland half-way through the tax (and calendar) year, you'd be due a tax refund, as if you're entitled to split year treatment, you'd be due a full year's tax allowance on your six months of income here.

Fysh

When I first started working in Ireland, I was lucky enough to start late enough in the working year that I didn't pay any tax on my paltry salary until the next financial year.

That's about the only legitimate way I can think of for someone not to pay any tax for the first six months or so of any new job. If you're on PAYE you wouldn't have to do anything special to sort it out, it'll just be taken into account each month calculating your salary and tax thresholds, though you'll probably have to have made an official statement somewhere to the effect of "I have not earned any taxable income so far this tax year".

zodiak

Hey guys need some help.

A women in work today said that when u have your first job in the uk u dont pay tax on first 10,000... is this true? and if so how do I claim that back is it when your getting a rebate because im getting raped by the tax man every month

second... I need to get a provisional driving license but I need to keep my passport on me because I need to fly back to Ireland at short notice if need be plus i got to travel abroad with work. How do i get this license without having to send my passport away??

Thanks

Fysh

I'm suspicious of the first claim - im not aware of any extension to the taxfree allowance for your first job so I think that's wrong and your taxfree allowance is around £8K (you can find out more details here. If you want to check if you're due a rebate you need to contact HMRC, but I think you'll need to wait until the end of the tax year.

As far as the provisional licence goes, there's no way around it - i've just been dealing with this and unless you're from the North and have dual citizenship, you have to send off the passport. To be fair, I got mine back within 3 weeks having sent it off at the start of the Olympic Games, so it doesn't necessarily take ages.

nager

You pay both income tax and National Insurance.

Depends on your credits/circumstances - but generally:

NI:
The first£7225 per year - 0%
after this the next £32,253 is taxed at 12%
then 2% on any thing above this.

Income Tax:
The first £8,105 per year is tax free
then 20% on the next £34,370
then 40% on anything after this.

Remember - this is generally - contact you tax office or have a look here for income tax and here for National insurance - you lazy git...:D

your second question - havn't a clue...

zodiak

cheers thanks for the help

frag420

OK so I am interning here in Dublin but with a lack of jobs in my industry I am seriously considering London. Of course with ltd funds having not earned anything while interning I was thinking of going over and getting bar work to tied me over while I look for work in my industry.

I spoke with a recuitment consultant who specialises in this industry and he said that obvioulsy I would need to be in London in order to interview for roles so I was thinking of moving over and getting any ould job until I get sorted. He is confident he cant get me a job when I am there.

Have any of you guys tried this? Is it feasable? Any advice?

Pints in it for ye when I get over there!!

frAg

getz

frag420 wrote: »

OK so I am interning here in Dublin but with a lack of jobs in my industry I am seriously considering London. Of course with ltd funds having not earned anything while interning I was thinking of going over and getting bar work to tied me over while I look for work in my industry.

I spoke with a recuitment consultant who specialises in this industry and he said that obvioulsy I would need to be in London in order to interview for roles so I was thinking of moving over and getting any ould job until I get sorted. He is confident he cant get me a job when I am there.

Have any of you guys tried this? Is it feasable? Any advice?

Pints in it for ye when I get over there!!

frAg

there are agencies in london that specialize in bar work.