OK so you have your working holiday visa and you are in the UK looking for a job. What do you need now?

A National Insurance number is essentially the same as our Tax File Number and just as important. An employer will expect you to have one and it is obtainable easily in the UK through the tax office who are called the Inland Revenue. Call 0845 9157006 (dialing in the UK) and they will talk you through the process.

A bank account is also essential as most employers prefer to credit wages via bank transfer. Opening an account in the UK is not always straight forward because they operate an identification similar to the 100 point check here. The tricky thing here is showing proof of address with a utility bill, as most working holiday makers won’t have this, certainly not early on. It is much better to open an account in Australia prior to your trip using your local proof of address. You need to leave at least 5 weeks processing time for this – see www.travelex.com.au for all the information.

Obviously you will have to pay tax on your earnings while you are in the UK (check out the UK tax site here for more information) but many travellers, especially professionals, set up limited liability companies in order to structure their income as a tax dodge (oops, sorry, an acceptable tax avoidance measure). Essentially this means offering your employment as a contractor rather than an employee to the mutual benefit of both parties. There are loads of companies which will set this up for you usually for a reasonable fee. Careful though, this is not as easy as it used to be; the UK tax office has woken up to this one and gets upset if you are blatantly just working for the same employer whilst pretending to be a contractor.

Oh, and just in case you didn’t know; the UK is not part of the Euro zone. The Pound (quid) is still their currency. Much of the rest of Europe including Ireland, France and Germany is now on the Euro.