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If an EU citizen wants to buy a house in the UK after the transition period, settle there, open a bank account and transfer a huge amount of money there and live out of interests only afterwards, can they still live there even if they provide for themselves only with passive income?

And how cay they deal with taxes? Will these taxes be detracted from their interests automatically or will they have to apply a tax return, declare their income and pay separately on their own?

EDIT: I've just realised that specifying the nature of the citizen in this case is totally irrelevant, since former rights of EU citizens will no longer apply (except for Irish people, they're a peculiar case), and hence any French or Dutch citizen will be considered rankingly the same as a US citizen. In this case, will he need a visa to go there or can he just go there with no visa and regularise himsel afterwards?

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  • How much tax you pay on savings income depends on what your total income is, as does how you pay it if you’re not in employment or receiving a pension gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings Buying a house in the UK doesn’t lead to a route to settlement in and of itself, AFAIK
    – Traveller
    Commented May 11, 2020 at 14:21
  • So basically being wealthy does not make a person eligible to live in a country?
    – us er
    Commented May 11, 2020 at 15:00
  • AIUI if you are rich enough then you can immigrate to most western countries through an "investor" route but the exact details of how rich you need to be and what investments you need to make vary.
    – Peter Green
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 11:23

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In order to settle in the UK purely on the basis of wealth, you need to apply under the Tier 1 Investor route. Under this route, the applicant is required to invest £2,000,000. They will gain settlement after 5 years. This can be decreased to 3 years by investing £5,000,000 or 2 years by investing £10,000,000. At application time, they must prove they have £2,000,000 available in a UK bank account, and if they've held the funds for less than 2 years, they must prove its provenance. When extending the visa or applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain, the applicant needs to show they've invested the required amounts in actively trading UK registered companies for the time covered by the previous leave. They cannot (anymore) just invest the money in gilts, but by investing in a large number of well established UK companies, there is practically zero risk involved. The route has been criticised as being an excellent vehicle for money laundering, although some reform has been introduced requiring applicants to complete criminal background checks.

The rules for this route are fairly complex, and very few applications are made annually. It would be advisable to make this application with the help of an experienced (and expensive) solicitor. But anyone in a position to apply as a Tier 1 Investor obviously won't have any problem affording this.

Under this route, the applicant is allowed to work, except as a professional sportsperson or coach, and there are some restrictions on working as a doctor or dentist. And they can also bring over their dependents to the UK.

Taxes are dealt with in the same way as any other UK tax resident. With the amount of investment required, and the high income that they presumably have, they would likely be required to complete self-assessment, but they will probably pay an accountant to do it.

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  • The doctor/dentist things seems odd. What are the restrictions? Are they more extensive than the restrictions applying to U.K. citizens (most of whom can’t work as doctors or dentists - or several other professions - either).
    – rhialto
    Commented May 25, 2020 at 9:18
  • @rhialto The restriction is specifically on working as a doctor or dentist in training if the person in question doesn't have a UK degree in the appropriate profession (ie, they have a foreign degree). The restrictions are applied to this visa a few others (most notably, PBS dependents usually have the same restriction). No, like almost all immigration law, this doesn't apply to British citizens, or to visa holders who don't have this restriction on their visa. This is separate from other restrictions on unqualified people working as doctors or dentists.
    – MJeffryes
    Commented May 25, 2020 at 9:40

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