The Move to London



 I did a little urban exploring in Milton Keynes my last day. There is a large shopping center that is supposed to be one of the largest in all of Europe so I had to check it out. Known as the Xscape it is massive.

Inside there is even an indoor ski slope - it was weird watching people in the mall carrying ski's

 

Before I left Milton Keynes I received the 101 on UK individual tax returns - Stop here and move to the pictures below if you are not into number crunching!

The SA-100
The first noticeable difference in tax systems is one of self assessment, unless you have significant income outside your wages and investments, you're usually not required to file a UK tax return. The SA-100 SA standing for "self assessment" return is only filed by a minority of the population.

Some observations:
- Married Individuals do not have an option to file "joint" returns
- 4 brackets in UK - 0%, 20%, 40%, 45% The 40% bracket starts as early as $72,000 USD equivalent
- Employees receive a P60 at the end of year, equivalent of our W-2 stating wages and withholding
- Tax is withheld at source on all investment income, so interest and dividends are paid NET of tax
- Capital gains are taxed at 0%, 10%, 18% or 28% based on where you fall in the rate bands(brackets)
- National Insurance Contributions (NIC) are due on income/wages, similar to our payroll tax
- There is no "itemized deductions" allowed in the UK, and there are very limited number of credits, one such credit is the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme whereby the investor receives a 50% CREDIT for contributions into small businesses. There are provisions on size and time duration
- Retirement and charitable contributions are not deductible on the SA-100, they shift income from high brackets to lower brackets proportional to contributions. On the back end, the amount is grossed up by HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs - IRS equivalent) and paid to the institution on the back end (paid to the charity or financial institution holding the retirement fund).

As an example, if you contributed $48(after tax $) to your retirement fund, and you were in the 20% bracket, the HMRC would contribute $12 into your retirement account.

My move to London was short, only about an hour away but for most in the MK Mazars office it was the last time I would see them. I left the team with goodies in typical English courtesy, and said all my goodbyes. I will always remember the hospitality I received from everyone in Milton Keynes - thank you.

Coming into London, I knew my location must be pretty good because it only took 45 minutes to get to the city but almost an hour to get to my apartment. Here is a view from my window! I'm about 15 walk from the office and tower bridge. I live right on top a fish and chip shop - yes, how stereotypical. There are grocery stores, markets, shops and restaurants all around me - city living!
Here are a few pictures from my first day walking London!

The River Thames from Tower Bridge!

Castle of London - Right across the street from the Mazars office



Me on Tower Bridge



the Gherkin



Me and the Gherkin

Milton Keynes

Hard to believe this is my last week in Milton Keynes. Besides all the experiences and friendships gained whilst living here, there still remains a number of things to see and do right in my backyard. This week I set my aim at seeing and doing as much as possible before moving to London.

Friday, Mazars held a "Tax Away Day" where all tax professionals around the UK assembled to discuss emerging trends, strategy and results of the region. I thought it was a nice forum, an idea I will bring back to DHG.

After tax away day I was able to take in my first rugby game - the Northampton Saints are top in the premier league. Rugby players over here are known as the biggest and baddest in sports. As apposed to American football with all the pads and dancing. These guys were beasts, no doubt about it, the sport gained some respect in my eyes. We had some nice seats 2 rows off the pitch(field). You could hear the collision of bodies.

The Scrum

Following my night out, I did some exploring around Milton Keynes. I set out to see the site where the British code breakers deciphered some of the first German messages in WWII.  The site, Bletchly Park is just a few minutes outside MK. Some interesting things I learned from the day there:

-Bletchley Park was the site of the Axis powers main decryption establishment
-The site (once the estate of a wealthy London stock broker) was chosen for its proximity to the rail lines to London, and it sat conveniently between Oxford and Cambridge where it gleaned its talent
- Pigeons were dropped in battle to take the intercepted German encrypted messages back to Bletchly park(what!?) Dropped with parachutes they would return to Blechly Park to start the decoding
-The Germans used "Enigma" machines (shown below) to encrypt messages throughout WWII.  The adapted typewriter was used out in the field to scramble messages with over 100 million combinations. The key combinations to the enigma machines changed daily at midnight
-At the height of the operations at Bletchly Park, there were 8,000 people working there, mainly women.  They worked in three, 8 hour shifts, round the clock.  Around D day, they deciphered over 18,000 messages in one day
- Without the machine below, called the "Bombe" invented 1939 by Alan Turing, cracking the German codes would have been impossible. The machine, the precursor to the modern day PC, quickly went through the 100M+ combinations used in German Enigma messages



The main house at Bletchly Park

Interior at main house

Enigma Machines

The Bombe

To close my weekend I did a little more exploring around the city of Milton Keynes. I was told by numerous folks that I HAD to check out the concrete cows. I thought it was a joke. By chance, this weekend I stumbled upon the display in a large outdoor mall in Milton Keynes. It was not the Taj Mahal by any means, but the story behind it did contain some significance - Milton Keynes was an established city by the government of England to promote urban sprawl from London. The artist poking fun at the preconceived notion of the new city held by commentators who had never seen the place, that it would consist entirely of concrete pavements where once there were fields, and where its deprived children would need models to know how real cows once looked.

Look at this beautiful collection:

Concrete Cows