Hi
@BMEPhDinCO I moved from the US to the UK for a job at a university back in 2016, and I've been navigating some of these things for a while. I'm on my own, so there are some of your questions that I don't have direct experience of. Some things will also depend on which university.
1. Would we be subject to taxes in 2019? Less than 183 days in UK....
You're always subject to taxes, but do you mean would you be eligible to exclude your UK income for US taxes starting from the first couple months you're there in 2019? I'm not sure. For the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, you need to be a resident for a year, so if you moved here before 15 October, you could file with a six-month extension and use it. I've never done the Foreign Tax Credit, but maybe you could use that for 2019 taxes and then use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion starting from 2020 when your residency would be clearer.
Your UK income tax and national insurance payments and so forth will be taken out automatically from your pay. The UK tax year goes 6 April to 5 April. You'll need to file UK self-assessment taxes for the 2019-20 year, but the paperwork for that doesn't need to start until about September, with online taxes due in January 2021. People will tell you that nobody needs to do self-assessment taxes, but you do if you have an international situation. Once you're set up with the system, it's not bad, but do look into various deadlines.
2. When we do start paying taxes, would DH’s income be subject to UK taxes? He would be coming in on my visa, but would live in the UK more than 183 days in a 365 day period.
This I don't know, but it's probably best to assume so and carefully look into it. There is an agreement to avoid dual taxation, but at minimum, you'll have some extra paperwork.
3. Would DH be able to continue to contribute to his 401k and IRA in the US?
I think so. He'll still have US-earned income.
4. Would I be able to contribute to any of my US retirement accounts (Roth or trad IRA - have both right now)? Does that matter in terms of FEIE vs FTC?
I think you can contribute to US retirement accounts if you use the FTC. If you use the FEIE, you can only contribute to the IRA from income that isn't excluded, which would be anything over $102,100 OR self-employment income that you can't exclude anyway. I do FEIE, mostly because it feels easier, but if I want more options for retirement savings in the future, I might switch to FTC.
5. Would we be able to contribute to our taxable investment accounts (Vanguard held at the moment) or would we need to get new ones in the UK? If we have them in multiple countries, can we combine them?
Mmm... This is such a hard one that there is a whole thread full of US citizens lamenting how hard the whole thing is. I decided to sell all of my taxable investments a couple years ago when I was putting together a deposit for a home purchase here, and now my retirement investments are exclusively in stocks and my taxable accounts exclusively cash with some interest. If you want to keep your taxable investments, I would suggest switching to UK-reporting ETFs and eliminating any mutual funds that the UK would penalise. You can
find a list here, which is updated monthly by the UK government. Do that before you move, but keep in mind the move and immigration fees will probably be a big upfront cost that you'll want some cash for, even if something is ultimately reimbursed.
You didn't ask about costs to move. I think I ended up spending in the neighbourhood of $10,000 for one person including the fees for a 5-year visa, 5 years worth of immigration health surcharge, moving company, deposit on a rented room in the UK, UK-style passport photos, one-way flight, travel from Heathrow, etc. A lot of this was reimbursed for me, but it was scary to pay out a lot of money upfront before knowing if my visa would be approved or if I would be happy in the new job. The stronger dollar now would help keep some of the immigration costs in check, but you'll be paying for two people. The
immigration health surcharge alone for two people coming on a five-year work visa would be £4,000. It'll be an additional
£2,440 to apply for a tier-2 visa for yourself and your husband. I think that if you are coming long-term, these will work out to be reasonable costs, but you should just be aware ahead of time so that you don't tie up everything in retirement savings and then find yourself needing cash all at once.
6. Would I have money taken from my check and put into a UK retirement pension? If so, can I control that amount? And could I access it at 65/whenever traditional retirement is? (Aiming for early retirement at 55-60, so I know this would be a later stage access)
You'll probably be covered by
USS. In my case, there's a defined benefit portion that the employer and I have to both contribute to, and there's no choices to be made about that. There's also a bit that allows voluntary contributions that I can invest in various funds pre-UK-tax (similar to a 403b). This is good because the rules around investing as a US citizen in the UK are so complicated that an employer-sponsored pension plan is the only place I can hold UK investments without IRS penalties.
7. For tax purposes, I know the UK is individual, but US is joint - which would it be here? How would our retirement contributions reduce any taxable income?
Maybe a married person will know about joint vs individual taxes. Retirement contributions to your UK employer plan may reduce your UK taxable income. For the US, I've been excluding my gross UK income before retirement contributions because it is under the limit either way.
Edit to add
about the age: You should be able to use your UK employer pension from age 55, but the state pension isn't until later. The age may change. Actual UK people know this stuff better than I do.
