Can you choose where to pay tax?

A common question is 'Can you choose where to pay your tax?'. In other words if you're a non UK resident and are selling a UK asset can you choose whether to pay tax in the UK or overseas? This is most common where the UK asset that is being sold is a former main residence. In this case the capital gains tax charge in the UK will be lower than in many other countries due to principal private residence relief and lettings relief. It's not possible to choose in which country you pay tax though. Usually your country of residence has taxing rights over your worldwide income and gains (unless it applies the territorial or remittance basis) and therefore in this case your primary tax would be overseas. There is no facility to elect for the tax to be borne in the UK. In the case of UK assets the UK would also often have the right to tax any gain but if you're non resident any gain would be likely to be exempted in any case. If you wanted to be subject to the UK tax regime as opposed to the overseas regime you'd need to be UK resident and non resident in the overseas country. You could also potentially establish treaty residence in the UK to ensure that under the treaty the UK retains the taxing rights.