UK Inland revenue living in Thailand

[jpx]

I am currently retired and living on a company pension I also own a property in the uk witch I have decided to rent out.
The estate agent is deducting 20% of the gross rent for tax.
Would I be better of dealing with the inland revenue direct as being a non Dom uk citizen I am unsure about the 20% the estate agent is deducting.

[lomuamart]

Most agents, including mine, don't want to have anything to do with your tax affairs. They're property agents after all, not accountants.
What you need is to be accepted by HMRC as a "Non Resident Landlord Living Abroad". It's years since I went through that process but at the time it was very straightforward. Once you've been accepted, your agents should pay your rent gross of tax and you then have to do your annual returns and settle with HMRC.
I used an accountant for the first two years here and they managed to get my annual tax bill down to 250 GBP each year with deductions such as personal allowance, interest on mortgage, maintenance, agent's fees, wear and tear etc. After seeing what the accountant was doing, it became easy to do myself.
I think the net result financially should be the same for you whether you let the agent take the basic rate of tax each rental period or you settle with HMRC at the end of each financial year. However, if you choose the latter route, you get you rent paid gross of tax which can make a difference to some.
Have a look here: https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad/rent

[Dannie Boy]

I'm pretty certain that the tax rules haven't changed since I was quite familiar with them, so the basic principle is that rental income is considered UK income and therefore subject to UK tax, irrespective of your UK residency status. As Lomu has suggested, getting a good accountant is probably the best idea at least initially, as they will know what strings you can pull to pay as little tax as possible and then after a year or two, do it yourself. Regarding your status, you mention non-dom which is possible, although more likely you are "non-resident for UK tax", however as mentioned, they class rental income and UK derived pensions (company or state pension) as UK income and therefore taxable.

[STEVE G]

As Lomu says above, you have to pay tax on UK property as a 'non resident landlord'. You can still get your tax allowance of 10,600 pounds tax free but if you've got a pension from the UK, that might already be used up.

[theprice01]

Yeah to be honest it's none of your agents business what your tax affairs are, as others have said if you have other income they would be deducting the wrong amount of tax anyway.
I'm thinking of doing my own accounts this year as they are simple enough this year and come just above the income tax threshold, minus allowable expenses if should be under the tax threshold.