Can anyone tell me about the situation concerning paying tax when effectively never in the UK as a condition of the nature of the work.I’m about to start for a company in Southampton and have stated my wish to stay in the truck for over a year to pay off debts that have accumalated.Are there exemptions in this instance or am I being naive?
I don’t know the exact nuts and bolts, but I do know a driver who got a very large refund from the IR because he spent much of the year out of the UK… not even a whole year, ISTR 7 months of it, although this has to be a continuous period, i.e not just every monday to friday.
Sounds like a good job! they after any more drivers??
Thanx for that help fella,gives me some scope for manouvre.
AFAIK you pay the income tax in (and subject to other relevant laws of) the country in which you live more than 183 days a year. If there is no such country then you are subject to the laws of the country your employer is registered in. If the seat of the employer is on board of a ship then you are subject to the laws of the country the ship is registered in.
Harry’s friend could have got the refund after proving that he lived >183days of the year abroad where he too paid his taxes; HMRC then returned him the overpaid/double charged tax.
Take it from me you CANNOT claim your tax back. I have just finished working for plm and there was 8 of us that claimed our tax back. We were all put onto NT(no tax) tax codes, so we werent paying any tax at all on our earnings. I did mine from April last year was due a £4k tax refund and was put onto a Nt code. Then in October the tax office decided that none of us should have been put onto a NT code and we shouldnt have had a tax rebate. We were then ordered to pay back all tax that had been paid to us.
I was quite fortunate because i hadnt recieved my rebate i had only been on NT code and that was only about £2k but some of the drivers had claimed back 4 or 5 years of tax so now have to pay back upto £16k.
The ruling was decided on the factors that although we were well under the days in the UK allowance, we needed to be resident somewhere and pay tax somewhere, but because we are mobile workers then we have to pay tax on the following basis. Where our bank accounts are, where our houses and family are and where our company is based, and where we would call home, and calling your truck home isnt an acceptable answer. 
For the 183 day rule you have to average less than this every year over a 4 year period. You also need to have resisdence in another country with bank accounts, house etc.
You might get away initially with it, but i promise you they will find out, and if you have had a rebate you WILL have to pay it back.