RDRM34180 | Remittance Basis: Exemptions: Exempt Property - Notional remitted amount less than £1,000

Property other than money that derives from foreign income or foreign chargeable gains is exempt property if the amount that would be regarded as remitted, if the exemption did not apply, is less than £1,000 (ITA07/s809Z5).

Example

Jacob, a remittance basis user, uses his foreign income to purchase a mobile phone for £250 whilst on holiday in Florida. Later in the same trip, while in Singapore he also buys a fountain pen for £485, and a new suitcase at the airport, as a present for his wife. This costs him £630. He brings all the items back to the UK with him upon his return home.

The mobile phone, pen and suitcase all derive from Jacob’s foreign income so would be taxable as remittances when brought into the UK under ITA07/s809L. However each item’s notional remitted amount (£250, £485 and £630 respectively) is under the £1,000 limit, so section 809Z5 provides that the phone, the pen and the suitcase are regarded as exempt property. Jacob has not therefore made a chargeable remittance.

In Jacob’s case the total cost of all the property brought to the UK exceeds £1,000. However the exemption limit applies to each item of property, unless it forms part of a set.

Where the property in question forms part of a set and only part of that set is in the UK, a just and reasonable apportionment is made to find the notional value of that part by reference to what the remittance would have been had the whole set been brought to, or received or used in the UK at the same time as the part in question (ITA07/s809P(13)).

Note: Where property is remitted to the UK, the taxable amount is the amount of foreign income or gains used to purchase the property and not necessarily the total purchase cost, nor the value of the property at time of remittance. Refer to RDRM35000 Amounts remitted