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Readers’ forum: Will foreign residents’ salary qualify for UK pension?

08 January 2024
Issue: 4919 / Categories: Forum & Feedback , International , Pensions
Spanish resident

I have clients (husband and wife) who have become Spanish resident this year.

They are joint (50:50) shareholders in a UK company.

My question is if they continue to pay themselves a salary at the lower earnings limit (currently £533 a month) will it qualify for UK state pension credits?

Query 20 251 – Expat.


A solution might be to pay class 2 NICs.

More information is needed to answer this query and Expat needs to confirm the full facts of the case. Are the clients employees of the UK company or are they simply passive investors?

Normally the payments of a salary by a UK company to non-UK resident individuals are not subject to UK income tax and NI under PAYE as the individuals will have an NT tax code. Salary payments to non-UK residents are normally subject to tax in the...

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