Relocating? Plan Before You Move
The biggest cross-border tax savings happen before the flight: move-date timing, option exercises, pre-move sales, state exit, and pension decisions, planned as one sequence.
Two returns, one plan.
A transatlantic move is a one-time tax event with permanent consequences. What you sell, exercise, and contribute before you cross, and the elections you make when you arrive, set your position in both countries for years. We plan the move while those choices are still open.
Whether you're headed from the US to the UK or the other way, we cover the exit, the arrival, and the first-year filings on both sides as one engagement.
How we help before and after the move
Exit planning, arrival elections, and first-year filings, sequenced around your moving date.
Pre-Move Planning, Both Directions
US to UK or UK to US, the playbook differs but the principle holds: the months before you move are when the biggest savings are available. We build a move plan covering income, assets, pensions, and elections.
Move-Date & Tax-Year Timing
The UK offers split-year treatment; the US produces dual-status returns for arrivals and departures. Because the tax years don't align, the date on your ticket can change what each country taxes. We pick it deliberately.
Equity & Option Exercise Strategy
Exercise before the move, after it, or across the line: each choice changes which country taxes the spread and at what rate. We model your grants against both systems and sequence exercises around the move date.
Pre-Move Asset Sales & Rebasing
Selling appreciated assets before arrival can wash out gains one country would otherwise tax, and rebasing rules under the UK's FIG regime reward those who plan. We decide asset by asset what to sell, hold, or restructure.
State Exit Planning
Leaving the US doesn't automatically end state taxation. California, New York, and other sticky states keep claims on residents who exit carelessly. We document the break so your old state stops taxing you when you leave.
Pension & First-Year Elections
Final pension contributions before crossing, treaty treatment of what you've built, and the first-year elections in the new country all get decided once. We make sure they're decided on purpose, not by default.
Get a pre-move plan while the options are still open, properly and for a fixed fee.
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Built for the year your life crosses a border.
After you land, most of the leverage is gone: gains have crossed, elections have defaulted, the state still thinks you live there. Before you land, nearly everything is negotiable. That's the window we work in.
Moving day is a deadline, not a date.
Every element of a cross-border move has a right side of the line: gains that should be realized before it, income that should land after it, contributions that only count in one year. We treat your move date as the organizing deadline and sequence every decision around it.
Move-Date Modeling
We test candidate departure dates against both countries' residence rules (split-year treatment, dual-status mechanics, and day counts) before you commit.
Gain Realization Review
Asset by asset, we decide what to sell before the move, what rebasing or basis rules protect, and what should simply cross with you untouched.
Equity Event Sequencing
Vesting schedules, option exercises, and RSU releases are mapped against the move date so equity income lands in the jurisdiction that taxes it best.
Arrival Election Checklist
First-year elections and disclosures in the new country are chosen and filed on time, since these are decisions that are difficult or impossible to revisit later.
Why relocating clients choose US/UK Cross Border Tax
Advice Before the Flight
Most cross-border tax problems are locked in on moving day. We do the planning while every option is still open, in the window that closes when you land.
Both Ends of the Move Covered
One team advising on the country you're leaving and the one you're entering, so the exit strategy and the arrival elections are designed together.
A Sequenced Move Plan
Sell this before you go, exercise that after, contribute here first, file this election on arrival: you get a concrete, ordered checklist rather than general advice.
Fixed, Transparent Pricing
Relocation budgets have enough unknowns. You get a fixed quote up front covering the pre-move plan and the first year's filings in both countries.
"We came to them three months before moving from San Francisco to London. They resequenced my option exercises, had us sell two positions before the flight, and documented our California exit properly. The move still cost money, but nothing like what doing it blind would have."
Pre-Move Tax Questions
Common questions from people planning a move between the US and the UK.
Two Tax Systems, One Team
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hello@usukcrossbordertax.comLondon Headquarters
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London EC2A 4BT
United Kingdom
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San Francisco, CA 94108
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