UK Tax - can I claim expenses against a different tax year?
In some circumstances losses from self-employment can be offset against total income and/or capital gains. If this applies to you may be able to claim back some of the tax taken by PAYE from your day job.  You can also to some extent carry the loss backwards into previous tax years or forward into the next one if you can't use it fully this year. HMRC have some information available on the current rules: When you can claim losses  You can claim: But You can’t claim:
See my answer here What is the dividend tax rate for UK stock The only tax from US stocks you'd need to worry about would be dividend withholding tax of 30%.  If you contact your ISA provider they should be able to provide you with a W8-BEN form so that you can have this rate reduced to 15%.  Just because there's a tax treaty does not mean you will automatically be charged 15% - you must provide a W8-BEN form and renew it when it expires. That last 15% is unfortunately unavoidable.  If you were paying any UK taxes you could claim that 15% as a discount against your UK dividend tax liability, but as your US stock would be wrapped in an ISA there's no UK tax to pay which means no tax to reclaim from the tax treaty. Other than DWT though, you will pay absolutely no tax on US stocks held in an ISA to either the US or UK government. "About deducting mortgage interest: No, you can not deduct it unless it is qualified mortgage interest. ""Qualified mortgage interest is interest and points you pay on a loan secured by your main home or a second home."" (Tax Topic 505).  According to the IRS, ""if you rent out the residence, you must use it for more than 14 days or more than 10% of the number of days you rent it out, whichever is longer.""  Regarding being taxed on income received from the property, if you claim the foreign tax credit you will not be double taxed. According to the IRS, ""The foreign tax credit intends to reduce the double tax burden that would otherwise arise when foreign source income is taxed by both the United States and the foreign country from which the income is derived.""  (from IRS Topic 856 - Foreign Tax Credit)   About property taxes: From my understanding, these cannot be claimed for the foreign tax credit but can be deducted as business expenses. There are various exceptions and stipulations based on your circumstance, so you need to read the official publications and get professional tax advice. Here's an excerpt from Publication 856 - Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals: ""In most  cases,  only  foreign  income  taxes  qualify for the foreign tax credit. Other taxes, such as foreign real and personal property taxes, do not qualify.  But  you  may  be  able  to  deduct  these other  taxes  even  if  you  claim  the  foreign  tax credit for foreign income taxes. In most cases, you can deduct these other taxes  only  if  they  are  expenses incurred  in  a trade  or  business  or  in  the  production  of  in­come.  However,  you  can  deduct  foreign  real property taxes that are not trade or business ex­penses  as  an  itemized  deduction  on  Sched­ule A (Form 1040)."" Note and disclaimer:  Sources: IRS Tax Topic 505 Interest Expense, IRS Real Estate (Taxes, Mortgage Interest, Points, Other Property Expenses) , IRS Topic 514 Foreign Tax Credit , and Publication 856 Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals" Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and I have not 100% researched the law. Take any advise from an online forum with a grain of salt. Please consult an attorney, tax specialist, or the IRS directly for any concrete answers. AFAIK there isn't anything that would prevent you from starting a business. Simply owing back taxes shouldn't make a difference on how you make money, whether that is working for yourself or someone else. All the IRS is concerned about at this point is that you still owe them. When going through the process of forming an LLC a couple of years back, I don't recall any personal tax information being brought up except when we were discussing possible loan options. Regarding loan options, one important issue you may come into is if the IRS has filed a lien against you: A federal tax lien is the government’s legal claim against your property when you neglect or fail to pay a tax debt. The lien protects the government’s interest in all your property, including real estate, personal property and financial assets. A lien will exist on your credit report for 7 years after it is released: The IRS releases your lien within 30 days after you have paid your tax debt. With a lien, it will be very difficult to get a loan or other financing for your small business. If this ends up being the case, you can try to get a discharge or subordination on specific property that would allow lenders a claim on your property ahead of the IRS. Otherwise, you may find yourself relying solely on what money you currently have. A big point is the IRS's threshold on filing a lien is $10,000: The Fresh Start Initiative increased the IRS Notice of Federal Tax Lien filing threshold from $5,000 to $10,000; however, Notices of Federal Tax Liens may still be filed on amounts less than $10,000 when circumstances warrant. Since you currently owe ~$8,000 over the past 3 years, it is possible that adding another year in back taxes will cause the IRS to file a lien if they have not yet already done so. So it may be something to keep an eye on if you do plan on taking out a loan for your business. But is the money saved taxable? Not sure I understand the Question. If say you have salary of Rs 5 Lacs, after paying taxes and expenses, lets say you save Rs 1 lacs. If you keep this 1 lacs in savings account. You will get interest. If this interest is less than Rs 10,000/- it is not taxable. If it is more that Rs 10,000 then the additional amount is taxable. i.e. if you get a savings bank interest of Rs 15,000/- the difference Rs 15,000 minus Rs 10,000; i.e. Rs 5000 is taxable. Note if you keep the 1 lacs in Fixed Deposits, then all interest even if you get Rs 1 is taxable. Edit: If you invest the Rs 1 lacs in Tax Saving FD [lock-in period of 6 years], then Yes. You can claim deduction under section 80C. "The answer, as usual, is ""it depends"". Essentially, you'll have to pay VAT on your turnover, and if you have a million turnover, you'll have to be VAT registered. In that case, you'll either charge VAT on top of the million, or you'll have to send 200k to HMRC straight away. OTOH, being VAT registered means you can offset the VAT on company expenditure against the VAT on the company's income. After that, you'll deduct all allowable expenditure from the income of the company. That doesn't include your living expenses (those are your problem, not the company's) but basically anything that makes the company tick. Company expenditure also includes salaries paid to the company's employees etc. The company will then pay corporation tax on the remainder. Oh, and once all that's done and you get some dividends from the company on top of your salary, you get to pay income tax on those, once it becomes your money. But the money in the company isn't yours, it's the company's. Big difference." A) a tax treaty probably covers this for the avoidance of double taxation. Tax treaties can be very cryptic and have little precedence clarifying them http://www.irs.gov/businesses/international/article/0,,id=169552,00.html B) I'm going to say NO since the source of your income is going to be US based. But the UK tax laws might also have specific verbage for resident source income. sorry it is an inconclusive answer, but should be some factors to consider and point you in the right direction. With a question like this you should talk to a tax professional who knows about international tax and knows about both the UK and the country you will be working in. They will give you up to date advice on what can be an extremely complex question. However to get you started I'll tell you what I was told when I did this nearly twenty years ago. It's all about whether you are resident in the UK for tax purposes or not. If you are, you will pay UK tax. If not, you wont (assuming you are being paid outside the UK - check with your professional exactly what is involved). In those days you could be counted as 'non resident' if you spent a complete period of twelve months outside the UK. You can make occasional visits to the UK without invalidating that. Again, check exactly how much you are allowed to return while still being not resident. Usually you will have to pay tax in the country where you are resident, but check the rules there. With some skilful timing you may be able to be considered non-resident in bouth countries, at least for some of the time. Again, your tax professional will know. The bank account question - again get a professional. I don't think it's a problem, but you may have to establish that you are being paid in the foreign country. In general you are going to need an account in the country where you work, so if its a problem get paid there and transfer any money you need in the UK. Not sure about the UK, but if it were in the US you need to realize the expenses can be claimed as much as the income. After having a mild heart attack when I did my business taxes the first time many years ago, a Small Business Administration adviser pointed it out. You are running the site from a computer?  Deductible on an amortization schedule.  Do you work from home?  Electricity can be deducted.  Do you drive at all?  Did you pay yourself a wage?  Any paperwork, fax communications, bank fees that you had to endure as work expenses? I am not an accountant, but chances are you legally lost quite a bit more than you made in a new web venture.  Discuss it with an accountant for the details and more importantly the laws in your country.  I could be off my rocker.