Tax relief on UK salary income
The broker that is issuing the moneys after vesting is more than likely deducting a notional amount of tax and NI based on UK income tax laws. If you are not a UK resident, then you should pay income tax on those stock options based on your own tax residency. Best thing to do is speak directly with the broker to explain the situation, ask them to not deduct anything from your stock options - but keep in mind that you will need to declare these earnings yourself and pay the correct rate of tax. From my own personal experience, the UK employer more than likely receives the net value (after the notional tax and NI have been deducted) and in usual circumstances create a tax liability on your payslip (if you were working and had earnings). If of course this deduction is being made by the employer, then you can simply ask them to correct this (most UK payroll software will automatically deduct tax and NI for payments after leaving unless manually intervened, so they probably aren't aware if it is them doing so).
Short answer: it's complicated. The UK govt pages on foreign income are probably your best starting point: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/LeavingOrComingIntoTheUK/DG_10027480 As you can see, it depends on your precise residence status here.  (There is a tax treaty between the UK and the US so you wouldn't be double taxed on the income either way. But there might still be reporting obligations). "Others have pointed out that many benefits offered by employers ""for free"" are actually taxed; the employee must pay taxes on the value of what they're receiving (usually services of some kind). This is called imputed income. Also pointed out was that healthcare is an exception; a specifically protected class of benefits that aren't taxed. But sometimes they are. Many companies now offer domestic partner health coverage as well, regardless of whether the couple is in any kind of civil union or other arrangement. The costs to the employee vary, but it's often that they simply pay double of what their individual coverage contribution would be. Independent of the employee's direct contribution for their domestic partner, they must also pay taxes on the value of the employer's cost of the coverage. This can be significant, as typically the employer is paying the lion's share of the healthcare cost." Doesn't work like that. You're taxed on the lower band until 32ish and the balance is at 40%.   Use this link below to calc your tax  http://services.deloitte.ie/tc/  30k = 25,310 after tax // effective rate of 15.5% 40k = 31,170 after tax // effective rate of 22%  So you're gross raise of 33% will be worth 23% net to you.  You also have tax credits/USC/PRSI to think about - you seem like you haven't a breeze about the Irish tax system so I'd type PAYE &amp; Citizens Information into Google and start reading up on it. "OK, it's a bit of a minefield but here goes! You only pay corporation tax in the UK on any profit made, so your ""salary"" would not be classed as part of the profit, so in the example you give you would only pay corporation tax on £4k less your ""salary"" ie £3,200 so profit on the £800 remaining gross profit. You don't say if your figures are monthly, annual etc, but you only pay income tax if you earn over £11.5k in any given tax year, the rates increase as your income does, check here:  https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates You may have a different tax code, you would need to check that with HMRC but the link gives the ""default"" position which is correct for most people. https://www.itcontracting.com/limited-company-dividends/ If the figures you give are monthly then I would consult an accountant as they are likely to save you more than they will charge for their services. You will probably find it is most tax efficient to pay yourself a dividend from the company's profits but check with an accountant. More info: https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company/taking-money-out-of-a-limited-company" As well as the visual impact - employees don't see the money disappearing directly from their paycheck so don't feel as heavily taxed - there's usually one practical difference, at least in the UK. Employers are generally prohibited in law from explicitly passing the tax onto their employees. Of course the presence of the tax will affect how much they are willing to pay, especially over the long-term and when deciding on pay rises. But if there's a sudden increase in the tax rate, that will fall on employers immediately, they wouldn't be able to reduce their employees' pay directly. In the end, I filled out the form with a foreign TIN (my UK National Insurance Number) on line 6, as well as a short sentence detailing my claim for 0% tax withholding according to the relevant section of the UK-US tax treaty. It looks like this was good enough; the prize money arrived in my account a few days ago, and it seems that no tax was withheld! In a simple case as the sole UK resident director/shareholder of a company, with that company as your only income, you are usually best paying yourself a salary of the maximum tax free amount allowed under your tax code (~£11k for most people at present).  On this you will have to pay some employer and employee National Insurance (NI) contributions (totalling around £1000). Your salary/employer NI counts as an expense, so that is taken off the company profits.  You then pay corporation tax on the remainder (20%).  The first £5k you take as dividends is tax free, the remainder at a lower tax rate than the equivalent combined income tax/NI (starting at 7.5% instead of 20% tax plus employee plus employer NI), giving a significant saving compared to salaried income even after corporation tax. To declare and pay the tax, you would need to complete a self-assessment tax return.  Your company will also need to file a return. The Contractor UK website, although aimed at IT contractors, has some very useful information on operating Ltd companies. That said, finances are rarely that simple so I would concur with the recommendation you engage an accountant, which is a tax-deductible expense. Your tax rate is 20% for turnover below £300000. So deducting your expenses and all the tax your accountant thinks you need to pay is £450. But you can claim relief on your tax payments. Visit the UK gov website to check your options under which you can claim relief. Frankly speaking for such a low turnover you shouldn't have opened a limited company. Or do you expect your turnover to increase in the coming years ? If your turnover isn't going to increase any further or if there isn't going to be a substantial increase, better to go as a sole trader or an umbrella company. By earning money, I assume you are being paid a salary [and not allowance] in UK.  For the Financial Year 2013-2014: You are still a tax resident in India. India taxes Global income. Hence your salary from 4th Feb to 31st March, needs to be declared as Income. The tax will be at your total tax brackets. India does have a Double Tax Avoidance Treaty [DTAA] with UK, so you can deduct any taxes you paid on this income and pay balance in India.  Please note that it is not relevant whether you transfer money to India or keep in UK, it does not change the taxability. For the financial Year 2014-2015: Depending on the exact date, you may or may not be a NRI [away for more than 182 days] for tax purposes. If you are an NRI there no tax, else as above para. "In Australia there are cases for the argument. 1) We have laws against unfair dismissal that do not apply above certain thresholds. Your position is more secure with the lower salary. 2) Tax benefits for families are unfairly structured such that take home pay may actually be less, again due to a threshold. This tends to benefit charities as people need to shed the taxable income if a repayment of benefits would otherwise be triggered. 3) You do not want to ""just cross"" a tax bracket in a year where levies are being raised for natural disasters or budget shortfall. In this case a raise could be deferred ?" In the UK you have an allowance of £40,000 per annum for tax relief into a pension. This amount includes both your and your employer's contributions. If you earn more than £150,000 per annum this allowance starts to reduce and if you earn less than the allowance, your allowance is limited to what you earn. You can also carry over unused allowance from up to 3 years previously. If you stick within this allowance you won't pay tax on your pension contributions, if you go over the excess will be subject to tax. Salary exchange normally lets you avoid the National Insurance value of your contribution being taxed. If you paid your own money into your pension (without going through salary exchange), your contributions would have the 20% basic rate of tax credited to them and if you're a higher rate taxpayer you could reclaim the difference between the basic rate of tax and the higher rate of tax you pay but the National Insurance you've paid on your own money would not be reclaimable. You can't get the money back you've paid into your pension till you are are 58 (given that you are 27 now), the minimum age has risen from its historic 55 for your age group.  That's the pension trade off, you forgo tax now in the expectation that, once retired, you will be paying tax at a lower rate (because your income will be lower and you are much less likely to be subject to higher rate taxation) in return for locking in your money till you're older. Your pension income will be subject to tax when you eventually take it. There are other options such as ISAs which have lower annual limits (£20,000 currently) and on which your contributions do not attract tax relief, but which are not taxed as income when you eventually spend them. ISAs and pensions are not mutually exclusive so if you have the money, you can do both. It's up to you to determine what mix of savings will be appropriate to generate income for your eventual retirement. If you are living in some other country when you retire your pension will be paid net of UK tax. You might then be able to claim (or pay) any difference between that and your local tax rate depending on what agreement exists between the UK government and the other country's government. You will need to register as self-employed aka sole trader (that's the whole point: pay taxes on income that you're not getting as wages from an employer, who would arrange PAYE/NI contributions), or set up a limited company (in the last case you would have the option of either getting paid as wages or as dividends — which one is better is a complex issue which varies from year to year). You'll find lots of advice on the HMRC website. For 2014/15 it looks something like this:  To make it a bit clearer, let's also plot the difference in net income for self-employment and a single person company compared to employment:  Self-employment is slightly worse between £5885 and about £10,500 because Class 2 NI kicks in before the employed person starts paying any tax. After that, self-employment is better because you pay 9% Class 4 NI rather than 12% Class 1 NI. Once higher rate tax kicks in, the saving stops growing. The single-person company is most tax-efficient at all points, ignoring any accountancy costs it incurs. Strange things happen between £100k and about £135k because the withdrawal of the personal allowance kicks in at a different point when receiving dividends. We can also plot the percentage of income paid as tax for each case:  The strange kink for self-employment below £10k is caused by Class 2 NI again. Employment and self-employment both gradually tend towards paying 47%, reaching 46.5% for £2m gross income. The company tends towards 44.44%, reaching 43.6% for £2m gross income. "Re: Specifically, am I right in that everything I put on these is deducted from tax, or are there other rules? and  Am I correctly understanding this as ""anything above £3,600 per year will not be deducted from your tax""? Neither interpretation seems quite right… Unless what you mean is this: The contributions (to a pension, or to the share-save scheme) are deducted from your pay before it is taxed. That's how it works for employer-run pension schemes. In other words, you are paying the gross amount you earn into the pension, not the amount after tax. It's a tax-efficient way to save, because: compared to other forms of saving: (The bit about the £3,600: you can ignore this assuming you're earning more than £3,600 a year.) What happens to the pension if you decide to move back to France or another country? In some cases you can transfer tax free. Worst case, you'd pay some tax on the transfer but not more than 25%. [See here for the current rules: https://www.gov.uk/transferring-your-pension/transferring-to-an-overseas-pension-scheme. Re: the share scheme, if by 'salary exchange' you mean salary sacrifice (where your gross pay is officially reduced by that amount e.g. £150 a month), that's even more tax-efficient, because it saves you paying the National Insurance contribution too (approx 9% of the pay packet). Conclusion: Saving into pension and company share save schemes is supremely tax-efficient and, provided you're OK with your money being locked away until you're 57 (pension) or tied up in company shares, it's understandably many people's priority to make use of these schemes before considering other forms of saving where you pay into them from your salary after tax. Now, about this: I am trying to understand how much I should put into it Should I put money into these, or should look for another way to save (how will this work out if I go back to France or another country)? Nobody here can advise you what to do since individuals' goals and circumstances are different and we don't know enough of the picture. That said: FWIW, I'll tell you what I might do based solely on what you've told us in the question… First, I'd definitely contribute 6% to the company pension. This gets you the full employer match. That's free money (plus, remember the tax relief = more free money). If you're 27, a total of 12% salary into a pension a year is a decent rate to start saving for retirement. Actually, 14% would be generally advisable, and maybe more still – it's generally a case of 'the more the better' especially while young, as you have time for growth and you don't know what later priorities might change / financial needs might arise. Nevertheless, you said you might move overseas. So in your position I would then:" The principal of the loan itself isn't any sort of taxable event.  There are, however, two taxable events here. First, cashing out your 401(k).  That income wasn't originally taxed, so it will be now, as regular income.  Plus, you're going to pay a 10% penalty, assuming you're under 59.5 years of age. Second, when the business pays you interest, that interest will be taxable.  The principal is not taxable; that's not income, after all. You simply are getting back what's yours.  The interest is taxable, as that is the actual income here.