Coming back home

• Keep a bank account at home and a credit history if you can (see moving your money).
• Keep your records: pension statements, tax returns of both countries, medical records, residence permits.
• Think about Medicare Part B (Americans) before you leave, not when you come back (section 2).
• Know what happens to your health cover at home and how long it takes to restart.
• Keep the option of a home: selling everything makes a quick return harder and dearer.

Americans: Medicare

• Part A (premium-free for most people) is available again when you return ⁷.
• Part B: if you dropped it while abroad, you can usually sign up only during the General Enrollment Period, January 1 to March 31, with coverage the month after, plus a lifetime late enrollment penalty of 10% for each full year without it ^1,2. Someone back in May may wait until January to sign up: plan private cover for the gap.
• Drug plans (Part D) and Medicare Advantage: you have two full months after the month you move back to join one ³.

See the guide for Americans.

Britons: the NHS

Free NHS hospital treatment depends on being ordinarily resident in the UK, not on nationality: when you come back to live, you may have to show that you have returned for good (proof of address, intentions, sometimes documents) ⁴.

Canadians: provincial plans

Provincial cover may not restart on arrival. British Columbia, for example, applies a wait period to new and returning residents: the rest of the month you become resident plus two more months, during which you need private insurance ⁵. Check your own province's rules before you fly back.

Europeans with an S1

If a home country paid for your healthcare abroad through an S1, the cover in your foreign country of residence ends when you leave it; register again with your home system on return. (See the health insurance guide.)

• Tell the foreign tax office you are leaving and file your last tax return there; the year of departure is often split between the two countries. Ask for proof of the end of your tax residence.
• Special regimes end: Italy's or Greece's 7% flat tax, Malta's 15% programme, Cyprus's 5% option, Uruguay's tax holiday all stop when you leave. (See the pension tax guide.)
• Selling a home abroad is usually taxed in that country, and possibly at home (Americans always): get the calculation before you sell, and keep invoices for works.
• Reporting continues for a while: Americans keep filing the FBAR as long as foreign accounts exceed $10,000 ⁸.

• You become resident again at home, from the day you return or from the start of a tax year, depending on the country's rules; your worldwide income is taxed there again.
• United Kingdom: you may have paid voluntary National Insurance while abroad to protect your State Pension ⁶. Tell HMRC you are back through your Self Assessment return, or by contacting them.
• Foreign pensions you keep receiving (from the country you lived in) become foreign income at home: check the treaty.

• Report your new address to every pension payer, at home and abroad. US Social Security beneficiaries must report a change of address; doing it late can lead to overpayments that must be paid back ⁷.
• Proof-of-life questionnaires sent abroad stop once you are back, but answer any that arrive in the meantime.
• State benefits at home (housing help, care allowances) may require a period of residence first.

• Cancel or transfer your residence permit, local registrations (town hall, health system) and utility contracts.
• Close or keep the local bank account: keeping one helps if you still own property or receive a local pension.
• Rent or sell your home abroad; renting means staying a taxpayer there.
• Ship back what matters, and ask your home customs about relief for returning residents.

1. Keep a home account, your records and a possible home address.
2. Know how and when your health cover restarts, and buy private cover for any gap.
3. File the last tax return abroad and tell both tax offices.
4. Update your address with every pension payer.
5. Decide about the home abroad: keep, rent or sell, with the tax effect.