It’s not me, it’s you! My break up letter to the UK.
Dear United Kingdom,
It’s official. I have quit the hustle and bustle and have moved to the countryside in Sweden. I have never been one to draw out Goodbyes — I am usually a ‘see you later’ kind of gal. Having moved and left New York where I spent 10 amazing years during my 20’s, to then move and leave Copenhagen after a short 3 years, and finally moving back to London and leaving after another quick 3 years.
Although being born in the UK, I have never felt super close to England — spending the majority of my early adult years in the US I felt more Ameri-tish then anything else. So when I got the opportunity to move back to London I knew it was never a forever move and with the combination of Covid and Brexit, it felt like the need to move on was accelerated quicker than anticipated.
So how do you break up with a country? Of course, as a Service Designer, I took to my new friendship group “Brits in Sweden” on Facebook and did some research and crowd sourced the following information:
-Declare to the tax office
-Inform the council
-Deregister from Doctors (request any Doctors notes)
First things first, declare to the tax office — fill out a P85 final tax form on leaving the uk with HMRC.. easy enough…