I was hoping that the forum may help me with a tricky immigration question thats been bothering me for a while. I assure you that I have scanned the forum to see if this question has been asked before and found nothing similar to to what I have in mind.
Background - I am an IT professional and I have been here in the UK since Jan 2003. I had a work permit & leave to remain till 2010 and I was waiting to get ILR (like a number of you) next year. I was planning to become a freelance / contractor once I had my permanent residency sorted - primary drivers being more money. The recent changes in policies meant that I had to change my plans as well and I applied for HSMP in June this year. I still have not applied for FLR.
Scenario - I dont want to give tedious (irrelevant) details about IT contracting and Umbrella company, but for the benefit of those who don't know, a common practice for IT Contractors is to keep a very low salary - to save on income tax and the rest of the earnings are taken as dividends. I assure you that this is a perfectly legitimate way of working and HMRC is aware and therefore they have other legal tricks like IR35 up their sleeves.
For those of you who are still reading this
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
What will happen if I would go contracting on a 14k p.a salary and dividends in excess of 50k? Will I have problems getting an HSMP extension? Will the Home Office understan that my low salary is not because I am doing a low skilled job - but due to tax reasons? Also, will this go against me ?? Maybe they dont like people who don't want to pay hefty taxes.
I know some of you have done the maths and they must be wondering that I have already spent 3.5 years in this country and another 2 years will take me well past ILR so why am I fretting about the extension?
I have been out of the country for a period of 6.5 months ( from Jul 03 - Jan 04) - I had a valid work permit through that period and also I have a letter from the company that says I was abroad for reasons directly related to my employment here in the UK. But just in case, I run into someone who does not want to listen, its been known to happen, and I am refused ILR then I will have to apply for HSMP extension. sigh
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Thanks a million for reading this.
VW
PS - Though this is my first posting - I have read a number of postings and threads and I think this is an excellent forum.