Can you claim tax credits if you live outside of the UK?

There has to be a special reason for you to be able to claim tax credits if you live outside the UK. For example you or your partner (if you have one) may be a Crown Servant and you have been sent to work overseas by your employer.

When can you claim tax credits?

Normally you have to live in the UK to be able to claim tax credits. The UK is made up of:

England
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

It doesn't include the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

But you may be able to claim tax credits if you live outside the UK and one of the following applies:

You're a Crown Servant who has been sent to work overseas by your employer. You may be a civil servant employed by the UK Government or a member of the armed forces.
You're a citizen of Switzerland or a country that's in the European Economic Area (EEA), and you get contributions-based Jobseekers Allowance.
You're a citizen of an EEA country or Switzerland, and you work in the UK and pay UK National Insurance contributions as an employed or self-employed person.
You regularly travel to the UK for work as a cross border worker, for example you live in the Republic of Ireland but you work in Northern Ireland.

You may also be able to claim tax credits if you don't live in the UK, but your partner works as a Crown Servant.

More about tax credits if you're a cross border worker

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What are the EEA countries?

The European Economic Area (EEA) includes all the European Union (EU) member states plus a few others. These countries all have benefits arrangements or agreements with the UK.

EEA countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK).

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If you're a Crown Servant posted overseas

When you work for the UK Government as a civil servant or a member of the armed forces you're a Crown Servant. If you have to work abroad you may be able to claim tax credits, just as if you were living in the UK. The Tax Credit Office will treat you as being in the UK if any of the following applies:

Just before you were posted abroad, you were 'ordinarily resident' in the UK.
You've had a series of postings abroad and you were 'ordinarily resident' in the UK immediately before any of those postings.
You were in the UK just before you were posted abroad and the reason you were in the UK was connected to your posting. This can apply to a single posting or to a series of postings.

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If your partner's a Crown Servant posted overseas

If your partner's a Crown Servant working outside the UK, you may be able to claim tax credits if you:

live with your partner while they work abroad
live in the UK while your partner works abroad

You don't need to be ordinarily resident in the UK and you don't need close links with the UK to claim tax credits.

Ordinarily resident

Ordinarily resident means you normally live in the UK, and plan to stay here for the time being. When the Tax Credit Office decides if you're ordinarily resident in the UK they'll look at:

where your settled home is
where your close family live
how long you've lived in the UK
why you came to the UK
if you plan to leave the UK for good in the next two or three years

As a Crown Servant, you can sometimes be posted abroad too quickly to be treated as ordinarily resident. But you can still claim tax credits if:

you're in the UK just before you're posted abroad
the reason you're in the UK is connected to your posting

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Contact the Tax Credit Office

If you need more help you can call the Tax Credit Helpline which is open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. The numbers you can ring are:

tel 0845 300 3900
textphone 0845 300 3909 - if you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment

If you're calling from overseas you can also contact the Tax Credit Office on Tel + 44 289 053 8192.

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