Henry Wellcome Fellows - some information for working in the US

Since working in the US on a Henry fellowship can be quite complicated, I'm putting a very incomplete set of notes here in case they are useful for anyone. Note, my experience is very limited and it seems that everybody's situation is a bit different, even for things that should be constant, like tax payments. If you have information you'd like to share please email it to mba22 at cam dot ac dot uk and I'll put it up here.
 
topicsummaryweb resources, phone numbersother
visas.........
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taxesI believe that
- When staying in the US for less than two years, it is possible not to pay tax in either the UK or the US during that period.
- When staying in the US for more than two years, I think one has to pay US taxes, which are probably lower than UK taxes.
- National Insurance: the law seems vague on this, I think you don't have to pay UK NI when you're abroad.

- I think that quitting UK taxes is done as follows: download a P85 form (here or here) and fill it in. Then ask your UK host institution for the address of the tax office they deal with; send the P85 there. The tax office should issue you with a "non-tax" code and refund old taxes you've been paying and not charge any more tax. I haven't completed this sequence yet but hopefully it'll work. (I found this out by going to HMRC website for non-UK residents, phoned the number on there (+44 151 210 2222), they told me to phone the local tax office to get the "non-tax code", and that tax office told me about the P85.)

Olli says: if less than 90d in the UK, then one is typically UK non-resident.

- To stop paying National Insurance (if you want, I think there's some impact on pensions so you might want to pay NI): Again, I haven't done this yet, but I was told to write to: HMRC, CAR, Benton Park View, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE98 1ZZ, UK, and give them my name, date of birth, address in the US, company name (i.e. British and US host insitutions), and the period of residence in the US. I think it's likely that the first 52 weeks need to be paid but after that it might be free.
- I don't know yet how to start paying US taxes (but this should be easy...)		US overview
UK overview		...

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health insuranceHealth insurance seems to depend heavily on the host university. I believe that some cover health insurance for a very low fee, but others (like Harvard) do not, in which case you can get an expensive affiliate's insurance (which the grant covers). It might be a good idea to get a travel insurance just before you leave, to cover the first few months, in case it takes a while to arrange a full insurance.......
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pound-dollar conversion- Citibank appears to charge almost nothing (i.e. you get almost the real exchange rate) if you open a UK account and withdraw cash at an American ATM. Also, you can open a UK account which holds Pounds and Dollars. If you then open a US account as well you can instantly transfer Pounds to Dollars on the US account, but this costs much more than withdrawing from the ATM. Nationwide also appears to charge little (1%) for ATM withdrawals in the US.citibank...
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Some more information provided by Olli (I'll in corporate this in a more orderly way later):

- income tax:
if less than 90d in the UK, then one is typically UK non-resident. exceptions apply, and in my case they asked for a paragraph explaining my situation. I had to submit a letter of confirmation issued by the sponsoring institution to confirm I am abroad, along with the P85.

- tax on interest:
R105, although R85 was also fine in my case if you talk to someone in person in a branch.

-NI
I am NI class D now and intend to keep the contributions as they seem to be transferable within Europe and my sponsoring institution adds significantly to my payments.