Sorry LouiseBerlin - there's every chance that you'll be sitting in a seat in the same room as the person or persons in front of you getting their blood test done.
On the other hand, if you can get over this, there is a huge demand for blood donors in the UAE and you could well be able to make a difference to other peoples' lives should you decide to donate blood on a regular basis. This is especially true if you have a rare blood group such as O Rhesus Negative. This blood type is seen as a universal donor - it pretty much means that anybody can use the whole blood or plasma from this blood type whereas the donor is only able to receive O Rhesus Negative blood should they need it.
If I can just add my tuppence worth here ...
We're retired and live here in Dubai. We have no home or bank accounts back in the UK. We've also been non-resident having filled out the relevant form in 2005. But ... DH still has to pay UK tax on his pension because those monies were accrued under UK tax laws and part of this was AVC's (Additional Voluntary Conributions).
There is no simple answer and everybody has a different situation.
It really is best to phone HMRC and speak to somebody. We've had to do this several times because DH's tax code has been SO wrong. Just make sure that you have all the info at the ready - such as National Insurance Number and any other info such as the reference on your last tax return.
It really helps if you have s k y p e or something similar as this helps keep the cost down.
