104. NT Tax Code Rejections: Why HMRC Is Making Pension Relief Harder for Expats

0:00and never seen this before. So we have another client who has just applied for an NT tax code, and it's been rejected because the HRC of determined, it's not a registered pension scheme. Therefore, it doesn't qualify for an NT tax code, which is ugly bizarre because it is a pension. I mean, let's say you've got a million dollar pension and you're taking 10 grand as a UFPLS and the UK's claiming that's a lump sum. Give me a break. Give me a break. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. If that's a lump sum, what would clarify his income then? It almost seems impossible to meet that standard. I fixed a tail holder in my apartment and I felt like a superhero. I genuinely, I yelled, I shouted, inkly, I said, I did it. That's a powerful feeling. You feel really good. Welcome to X-PATWELTH, a planned first world podcast dedicated to helping ambitious British X-PATRITS living in America to thrive here. I'm your host, Richard Taylor, and Plan First Wealth

1:02is the business I founded and run today, alongside my business partner and co-host James Boyle. And we work with successful British X-PATRITS living across America to make the most of their opportunity while avoiding the X-PATLUN mines. And boy, are there a lot of LUN mines in America. But first, a quick disclaimer. While Plan First Wealth LLC is an SEC Registration Investment Advisor, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of Plan First Wealth. Information presented is for educational purposes only. Now, if you aren't already receiving our emails, please go to our website, www.planfirstwealth.com and sign up there. It's free and you'll be notified every time we drop a new episode and so much more. Okay, on today's From the Trenches, James and I bring you behind the scenes here at Plan First Wealth as we build this business together and we work with our X-PATRIT clients trying to make a difference for them and for their families.

2:03If you have questions for James and I, we will try and answer them on the show and if we can't, we'll find someone who can. Email us your questions at x-PATWealth at planfirstwealth.com. So without further ado, let's get into it. Hi, James. How are you doing? Good, how are you, Richard? I'm tired, mate. I'm tired. I'm just a house full of dependents. I've got a kid who's got the dark. I've got a kid who wakes up super early and then makes his mission to wake his brother up and then goes up at the same time. But failing that, I've got a dog who likes to be sick when they're not waking us up early. So last two nights, I've got a dog who has been middle of the night throwing up, leaves or whatever else he's been eating. So I've been out in my PJ, well, not PJs, we know like, we know in the middle of the night. I thought with school starting, this would all have settled down, but so. So it has. And then the dog's just like, no, my turn.

3:05So yeah, I found out, honestly, I feel like I'm not asleep in eight years and it's just exhausting. Hopefully the dog is just something, he ate or something, he's okay. He does this periodically. Yeah, he's absolutely fine. It's just, where he does it on purpose. But he's fine, he's fine. But yes, no, so I'm tired, I'm tired. But do you want to know how middle aged I am? Let's hear it. Let's hear it. So should we do like a week? How middle aged are you? I don't know why you're in a hurricane. Yeah, I've got no idea what you're talking about. But on Monday, as you know, we had people working in the house on Monday. Remember? Yeah, we had people working in the house. After five years of wearing this home, our garage was a dumping ground. You know, it was so messy that it was one of those, like you'd go in there and you'd get stressed out just being around there. Yeah, yeah. It was a job hard. Boxes in there, like it was just a complete mess. And we had one of those, have you guys kind of guys, have like the slats on the wall? Yes, like for tools, as I understand it, and I have no tools. And I have no tools.

4:06But you can hang, you have a, we have a slat wall. It's called, we had a slat wall installed and they also made, they also built a, a cabinet and something else. And a slat wall and so on. So, I got many, many dumprams as well. Refuse, whatever you guys call a dump. And, you know, our garage is completely tidy and it's a bit hard. Parking. Kate and I find ourselves just going to the door and looking in like super proud of ourselves. And I stood there and again, this is so tragically middle aged. Yeah, it's nice though. It's sweet. You can say, yeah, it's coming for you. There is no way, you might be starting there now in city center Philadelphia. Thinking I have this great life. I'm out every weekend, I go to bars, I go to restaurants, I can walk everywhere. It's great fun. Don't you have a garage, don't care about any of this stuff. It is coming for you. It's coming. I feel it nipping in my ear. Ten years time. I'll be out of this. I'll be galavanting around New York and you're having fun and you'll be in the thick of it.

5:06And I'll be saying, do you remember that? And you'll be stood there on the cusp of your garage going, oh, look at this. I've got my lawnmower hung up here. You'll be so proud of yourself. I'll be staring at them slat walls. It's just salivating. Yeah. You know, speaking of DIY, I fixed a towel holder in my apartment and I felt like a superhero. I genuinely had it. I yelled, I shouted, in glee. I said, I did it. I bought the tools. I bought the, I couldn't tell you what it was called. Now the anchor piece or whatever, put that thing in there. That's a powerful feeling. You feel what I feel really good. Yeah, but also I've reached a point where, when I first occasionally I'll fix something and I'll get that feeling of like accomplishment. But in general now, we found the guys that came around and called the affordable, $100,000,000, they're brilliant, the work is fantastic. And they're feasible. And I just, I love being able to just call people and get this fixed now. That's nice.

6:07And don't get it wrong. It's the smallest, dumbest project to do. But do you know how, how monoship for me, the overwhelming feeling has been of a turtle that's been turned on its back? I am the turtle. I've been turned on my back and I'm just flailing. My legs are Kimber in the air, not knowing what to do. And I've essentially, I know it's all doable. I know you're on YouTube and Facebook. But I have a history of making problems worse. And then more expensive to correct. So I'm pouring my energies and my abilities into my business and my kids and my marriage. And I'm going to leave DIY to the professionals. I think that's a perfect, perfect idea. And perfect. On that. Yes, on that, we segue into what we're going to talk about today. So yeah, I get it. Trying to keep you so 30 minutes, we're going to talk about something that really has just kind of like is taking us a bit by surprise, NT tax code.

7:07So I'm not going to go into great detail on the NT tax code is today and how you go about getting one because we're going to do another episode on that specifically in the near future. But just let's give listeners a quick intro what we're talking about. So when you have a UK pension, we're talking about Sibs here. When you have a UK pension and you're starting to receive payments from it in the US, it is going to get taxed at source in the UK. The Sib trustees have no control over this. It's done through PAY, which any British should remember what PAY is. It's done through the PAY system. It taxed at source. Even though it's taxable in America for the most part, you taxed at source in the US. And then you might go through the rig rule of claiming that tax back or having trouble claiming it back. Honestly, as we'll talk about later on. And to avoid that, you can apply for something called the NT tax code. NT, I think it stands for literally stands for no tax.

8:09You can stand for a no tax code. And if you get an NT tax code applied to your PAY system, through the Sibs pay you, then you should be able to be paid out gross without any tax being withheld. And that'll make life a lot easier and simpler for you. So we generally recommend people who are in the US receiving, receive, going to receive benefits to apply for an NT tax code. Now that is a whole process in itself, which we're not going into today. A frustrating process to. A frustrating and long process. But it's a fairly simple one. At the end of it, you get an NT tax code. And it's simple. Or it was simple. Especially in the cross-border space, as we know, and from the PAY guys episodes, it's simple comparatively to all the other things we have talked about. Yeah. But it was simple and then suddenly it's got complicated. So we're going to tell people about three instances that have occurred recently, which I think are worth sharing. It's more of a public service announcement than anything.

9:10You know, we don't actually have a solution. It's more of like, if you're, if you're, if you have a sip, you're thinking about getting an NT tax code, or if you've applied for one already, and you're scratching your head, worrying what's going on, you're not alone. Yes. And, you know, it might be such that there is a solution right now. I think we've, we're going to talk about tax advisors. Obviously, as we always do, USUK cross-border tax advisors, from what we're hearing and seeing with clients and their interactions with their tax advisors, this has also come as somewhat of a surprise to them has been my experience, or they don't quite know what's happening or what, you know, the kind of next steps are going to be. So everyone's in this pot together. That's great point. One of the, one of the examples we're going to say here was actually advise by a USUK cross-border tax advisor, a really, a great one. So the, yeah, it seems to have caught them by surprise as well. So I'll tell you what, I've got story, well, I've got two stories you got one. So let's just, let's go through them. So the first one was a conversation I had with a chap, and he, he's not actually had a successful outcome. He's got three UK pensions, and as of his last update,

10:14two of them have had an anti-task code applied to it. So one hasn't, and we don't know why. So there's an alarm, not alarm bells are wrong word, but there's a head scratcher straight away. Why have two pensions had anti-task codes applied to them and one hasn't? He doesn't know we don't know. But this is worth noting because this guy, I think he's following our blog on this, applied to get one about, I think, two, 200 bit years ago. Wow. Yeah, and so people know you send some paperwork off to the IRS, the IRS and at HMRC, HMRC update your anti-task code. Send it about two, near, not quite, but about two and a half years ago. He heard nothing, I think he even contacted IRS, assumed that it got lost, applied for it again. And while he was waiting the second time, HMRC confirmed that two of his three pensions were going to get the anti-task code.

11:17Should we pause it because it's highlighting so many little wrinkles in this way? That's why he's saying, right? Number one that jumps out to me, and again, this is something that our clients, some of some people we talked to have had to find out the hard way, these codes are assigned separately to each pension provider is our understanding, right? So you mentioned he's got three pensions. Two of them have been applied this correctly. One of them have not confusingly. We've had clients who have had to, who had an anti-task code in place for an existing employer pension, as an example, to find benefit where they're getting payments. They were able to call, then have that apply to another pension, but it's important to note that it's not such where you have an anti-task code and that covers you for everything coming out of the UK. It's separate codes applied to separate pots, bizarrely, from my very American perspective. That's such a great point. Yeah, so, you're right.

12:18I'm going to get into this, James back on now as he learns the American system, but there are some things, right, that the American financial system baffles you. It banking's always the one that springs to mind. Yeah, but oh my gosh, coming from the UK, we, the way we have made pensions unbearably complicated and complex, seeing how easy it can be, seeing how the American system works, it's so straightforward, it just blows my mind that the UK have bugged this up so badly, frankly. And the frustration, I'm not even going to try to defend it, the frustration that it leads to clients. And then, obviously, we get blame for it. Yes, while I was going to put that a little more politely, maybe, but the questions come to us and we try to help the best we can. Unfortunately, in these kind of situations, whenever HMRC is involved, it's usually a case of, you do have to pick up the phone and call them, which is an odyssey in and of itself, trying to hold them. You know, the timing piece you also touched on there.

13:21So historically, we had always said, give yourself at least a year, right, 12 months. Knowing that it's going to take 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 months for this to be applied, I think we're finding that that is now stretching to 15 months, 18 months, two years in this case. Wait, yes and no. So let's use that as a segue into my next example, which is even more bizarre, frankly. And I hope to have an update for you on this one soon, you being listeners. So we have another, I've never seen this before. So we have another client who has just applied for an NT tax code and it's been rejected. It's been rejected. Had you ever seen that before? Because I've never seen it before. I have never seen that before. I've never seen that before. It has been rejected because the HMRC have determined that the company is requesting the product. The reason he's requesting one,

14:23that it's not a registered pension scheme. Therefore it doesn't qualify for an NT tax code, which is ugly bizarre because it is a pension. It is a registered pension scheme. It's incredibly obvious to anyone that it's a registered pension scheme. And the pension scheme have come back and said, we don't know what's going on here. Our best guess is whoever has picked up this case file at HMRC has looked at the corporate name. So you have like a corporate body, right? And the corporate body, which is the same name as the pension scheme, by the way. But the corporate body will then administer these different, these different, you know, there'll be a pet trustee company under it and then there might be another company that manages the payments, right? But it's all, there's one company above it that then manages a different, different aspect. Like an umbrella. Yeah. Like an umbrella, right? And they've looked at the top company and said, oh, that's not a pension scheme. Yeah, that's a company made organized in the, that's not a pension scheme.

15:24Whereas they've just like, scratched. One step lower. I, O, to have common sense. Yeah, yeah. It would have been immediately obvious that, oh, that pension, that company relates to that pension scheme of the same name. And I'm sure those details are contained under the application. So it, so I can't imagine this one's not going to be fixed, but it's going to involve a back and forth. And that could be a challenge. The reason it relates to the one is this, this client only applied for it earlier this year. So we have, you know, our first person who first applied over two years ago, early mid 2024. This client has got rejected, which is not good, not a good outcome, but applied earlier this year. So what's the rhyme or reason there? I was going to say there's no rhyme or reason, right? We can't really figure out why there's delays with some clients and with others, it's much quicker. That is a total headscratcher. The age of mercy would reject a, a, a clear, bona fide, UK pension is not being a UK registered pension.

16:29Just, you know, not going to be sigh. We'll talk about the case I experienced recently or that is ongoing, I should say. But does that speak to, and I'm sure we'll talk about this, but does that speak to HMRC's general sort of positioning or stance around all these issues? Seems to be getting a little bit more aggressive when it comes to things like lump sums and, or is this just fully? No, no, no, I do think that's true because, because we're going to talk about in a second. But I just don't see the connection to this case. This is just a, this is just a, just a, just a, a clear, a clear, a human error based on what I can only imagine is someone new to the job. Yeah, I would have thought it was pure speculation. And it is people reviewing these, I'm sure, right? At some point in the process, someone is reviewing it and, and, and, yeah, we're up to stamp in it or, or rejecting it. I'm excited to announce that X-PART wealth has its first sponsor,

17:32the Global Financial Planning Institute. The GFPI exists to provide education, community, tools, resources, and ongoing research for financial planners and other advanced financial professionals, working with international and cross-border clients in the US and Americans abroad. I'm a GFP Institute Fellow and I've put all our employees through their GFPI programs and their joiners. I've met some great people, I've learned a ton. It's a genuine community of internationally-minded folk doing their best to serve their clients properly and critically, sharing what they know in the oftentimes challenging and ambiguous US cross-border environment. And as anyone in this sector will tell you, you're always learning. So if you work with international clients and or Americans abroad, or if this is an area you're looking to get into, check out the GFPI at www.gfp.institute. You will be glad you did and I hope to see you there soon. So yeah, watch your space for that one. I hope to have an update for people soon,

18:33but I imagine it's going to involve some correspondence between the client and HMASI, maybe a call, but yeah, that'll be tax at source. Oh, and I should just say, sorry, I should just say, and if you tax at source and then you try and put a claim in for a tax refund, and HMASI have already said, you haven't got a, this is not a registered pension scheme, well, they're just going to presume they'll just reject the case for a tax refund. On the same basis, it's not a real pension. So, I think it's going to be easy to have to clear it up somehow. And all the time and headache and expense that that involves, unfortunately. Yeah, this is why it would be good to have it. If you had a, I don't think he does, he has a US tax advisor not a UK. If you had a UK tax advisor, a US UK, you could get a UK tax advisor doing it on your behalf. Yes. It makes it a bit easier. Yes, and now there's a perfect segue to this next case, because this is a client that we work with who has taken all the right steps, right? Is working with a US UK tax advisor team a lot of enough time, right?

19:3512, 18 months ahead of time, knowing that it's going to take some time for the IRS to process and then HMRC to process. Took advice. I believe his tax advisor actually will file, we'll complete and file some of these forms on his behalf. So that's a burden right there of this client shoulders. The recommendation from the tax advisor team was to take what they call UFPLS. And I should know what that acronym stands for on the top of my head. It's something like uncrystallized funds pension lump sum. Effectively, it is instead of taking, everyone thinks of that 25%, right? The PCLS pension commencement lump sum, where you take that 25% in one go and in the UK, that's tax free. This UFPLS is a mechanism whereby a pension will make payments such that 25% of each payment is tax free, is considered part of your pension commencement lump sum, 75% then is treated

20:38as a taxable distribution. We're going to get into, I think, this meaning of a lump sum and why it's taken on such significance in the last year. So I think when it comes to HMRC's dealing with these things. We should also just say, James, you can explain why people do that. Just super briefly, yeah, okay, go ahead. The, and feel free to jump in here, but our understanding again from the tax advisor team is that these will be seen as regular payments, right, as sort of ongoing systematic regular payments as opposed to a lump sum, which can change how HMRC treats it from a tax perspective. Well, but also can change how, can give you a better argument again, for the IRS about how the PCLS is treated. Under the tax, we're not going to open it up. And I'm worried right now, but PCLS from a, the 25% payment from a UK pension that is tax free in the UK, is it tax free in America?

21:39There is no clear answer. Ask three different tax advisors, you'll get three different answers. One of those answers is it's more defendable if it's taking as an income. And what James just described, taking UFPLS is a way to take it as an income and have a better justification argument for treating it as tax free. So that's great advice. Really important, yeah, because that's what you want to go down the road, yeah. It's sort of beneficial on both sides then, right? And that was the advice from the tax team again. So we initiated that, right? Took a small, but not insignificant initial withdrawal that's going to generate, right? That's going to get 75% of that. That's going to go through PAY, like you just described. That's going to sign a tax code. All the things that we would expect, right? That was done over the summer. Very recently, within the last month or so, four to six weeks, this person gets a letter from HMRC

22:40essentially denying the ability to claim the tax tree. Yeah, rejecting it. Same, same as somewhere in your case. The wording was slightly different, right? This, this they were saying, this is a lump sum. And in fairness to them, it is in the name. It's in the acronym. But, you know, the motivation here was having an ongoing stream of income. They said, no, it's a lump sum. We get taxing rights. It's rejected under the tax. Yeah, and just like we're getting a bit technical headache. So if anyone is still with us, let me just, I'll try and keep this brief. And this is why it's so nuanced. What with this space is so new, people get so frustrated by that. But that is just, that is, that's a world we operate in. Unfortunately, if you're an expert here with, with non-USSS, it's so nuanced. And the nuance is, and I don't know why this is, if you're receiving an income from a UK pension under the treaty,

23:40that is taxable in America, and only in America. However, if you receive a lump sum from a UK pension, that is taxable in the UK. So strange. And then Americans, then American tax it as well, I think. But primarily, it's first of all, it's taxable in the UK. Why I don't know. Or maybe America can't, can't tax it. That's a point in the savings clause. Let's not get, let's not get, let's not drill down to that right now. It's taxable in the UK. And the UK have reached, last year, came out with some sort of note or publication, where they clarified their understanding that anything over 50% was probably a lump sum. No, sorry. Anything over 20% was probably a lump sum. Anything over 50% was definitely a lump sum. I think that's what it said. Am I got that wrong? But, bro, roughly, they came out and they clarified their position on what counts as a lump sum or not.

24:42Now, funnily enough, this payment was way below, both of them were in the middle of the market. Way below. And it's clearly going to be part of an ongoing income. And yet, they seem to be claiming it's a lump sum, therefore, it's taxable in the UK. So, that is a real surprise. Obviously, it's a tax advisor's buy surprise. Yeah. So, is it a rogue agent like the one we've got for this other client? Or is it, is this a new position? Like, we don't know. But it seems that the UK are taking a, but based on their stance last year, this note that clarified, clarified their position on lump sums and some stuff that, the stuff that they're doing in the UK regarding the treatment of a 401K's and IRAs, it seems clear that the UK is changing its interpretation or application of the treaty. And I think that we're seeing the effects of that now with this again. We're not quite sure where this goes from here. Yeah. It kind of speaks to the point earlier of, does this all sort of rely a more aggressive positioning

25:43from HMRC than we've seen in the past? Maybe, right? This is pure speculation. And maybe in some ways, this is a bit of an over correction and there's going to be some kind of clarification of what the process is and what gets called out as a lump sum versus income. But in the moment, there's definitely some confusion, even amongst tax advisors. I mean, let's say you've got a million dollar pension and you're taking 10 grand as a UFPLS and the UK is claiming that's a lump sum. Give me a break. It doesn't make any sense. Give me a break. Because then you question, well, what would, if that's a lump sum, what would clarify his income then? It almost seems impossible to meet that standard. Yeah. Yeah. So sorry we haven't got, we haven't, again, like I say, public service announcement or anything, this seems to have, something's changed in that department. We're seeing the effects of it. We will do a full episode on NDTACS code of what it is, how you apply for it and hopefully at that point, we might have some updates on these cases and some clarity. Watch your space.

26:43But look, if you are, if you are a British expert listening to this and you have assets in the UK, be them pensions or other assets, there is no way of getting around it. This stuff applies to you and it's complex and it's nuanced and it's frustrating and it is what it is and we just have to wait our way through it. It's the unfortunate space we're in, right? Like this kind of complexity is part and parcel of being cross-border, being an expert. But we should be grateful because there is a really robust treatise in the US and the UK. Yes. The dust protection income. So as frustrating as it can be, whether or isn't always a clear answer when you get these roadblocks, that we should be grateful for having this really robust treaty that does for the most part protectors from, protect our pensions. We still treat it as retirement accounts and pensions. That's maybe a key point and a more positive one to end on to. We don't believe you'll get double taxed, right? If you're taking this income. Yes. But we haven't seen how these play out.

27:44So... No, that, yeah, sorry. We're talking about the mechanics and logistics. Yeah, yeah. The fact remains, the treaty is in place and the treaty should for the most part protect you from double taxation. So you might have a situation where the UK's taxed you at source and the US wants to tax you. And for a period, I guess you could say our double taxation. But there should be a mechanism where you'd be able to get some of that tax back and you only tax once because the mechanics of this doesn't supersede the treaty. So I think that's a really important point to make. Yep, absolutely. Good, okay, right. Well, we will report back in due course, but we're as baffled as you are. But we're in accounting. It's possible clients. You're not alone. Yeah. We're not alone. Right, pick a mix. What do you got for us, James? What are you reading, watching, consuming at the moment? So as a record, I'm heading off to the Emerald Isle

28:46on Friday, heading off to Ireland for a holiday. It'd be so. That would be a different trip altogether. I've been stuck into a lot of Irish books, fiction, nonfiction, watching shows, one that really jumped out to me. And this is actually, it's a historian in Ireland's name's Donald Fallon. He has a podcast. And I think was the sort of origination of his sort of body of work. It's called Three Castles Birmingham. So the podcast is an excellent listen in and of itself. He wrote this companion book. It's called Three Castles Burning, a history of Dublin through city streets, fascinating. He sort of looks at the history of the city by each chapter examining a city street, a block in Dublin or an area of Dublin. It is so cool the way he winds ancient history with medieval history, sort of occupied history

29:46with modern history. And it's really, I've never read a book quite that's organized in this way. That's kind of like the architecture meets the culture, meets the history. But would highly recommend it. Certainly if anyone's taken a trip to Ireland. Do you know the streets? Yeah, so I've been to Dublin and have full time as a family and friends over there. A lot of them I know, or some of them I've stayed on. That's what I mean. Yeah, so you offer me some of which been to Dublin. That's, send me that, I'm gonna read that, send me that link. Yes. I like it when these authors come up with these new kind of frameworks for approaching the subjects. I do, I appreciate that. Do you know the phrase Beyond the Pale comes from Ireland and Dublin. Ireland, yeah, yeah. Like Beyond Dublin was the, was the intro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they call it the Pale. Yeah, yeah. Just one more note, what was very cool is you could have, like I had my phone open with my Kindle and I was all in Google Maps walking down the streets that are being described in this book and you can see all the historical landmarks and the things that he's describing.

30:46It was very cool. Yeah, yeah, really cool. What's it called? Three castles burning. And that's the name of the podcast and the book. Yeah, that's, that comes from the Dublin, the yet the flag of Dublin. Okay, well, I have just finished a book called Winged Victory by VM Yeats and I listened to a podcast on World War One aviation fighter, fighter pilots, there's a very famous German, or there was a very famous German pilot called Von Richthoffen, the Red Baron, there's famous flying circus, the Goring was a part of that's a whole, the story in itself, but the podcast recommended this book, Winged Victory and it's written by a World War One fighter pilot. I'm more familiar with the Second World War stories of pilots, but you've heard that phrase, they had like famously they had life expectancy of two weeks. Wow. Have you heard that before? Yes, I've heard that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Famously in the Second World War, over the battle of Britain, which is where the Germans tried to,

31:48the Luftwaffe came and prepared Britain for a for a for a Von invasion Goring told Hitler that he could defeat us in the air and we had the battle of Britain and it failed. But famously pilot, Spitfire pilots, not period had a had a two week life expectancy and you hear that start and that sounds kind of crazy and I've been aware of that start for years, but I read this book, which is the First World War, but it was same kind of thing, but in this period they had no ejectacies. So if you play and went down, you're going down with it. And they what they say is quite a long book and it takes you to the mental torture of these pilots and they're going up two or three times a day for an hour or two at a time. And you just become acutely aware, it's like a normal life, but for one to six hours a day, you're going on an excursion where two or three of your colleagues probably won't come back. You know, you're living every day as if it's probably gonna be your last and the turnover of people

32:48was mentally exhausting, reading about it over 100 years later, let alone the mental language of having to deal with that. And it turned that start of like a two week life expectancy into something much more crystal and brutal. It must have been so traumatic. It's hard to wrap your head around, you know? What how does that impact the people who make it through too? I just thought like I want my dog three times a day, right? Just imagine that every single day I go out for an hour walking my dog and there is a very good chance I'm going to die on that walk and never come back. I how devastating that is for me and everyone around me. Yeah. I hope you be sad. You know, I get living like that, the mental turmoil and this being Britain and 100 years ago everyone just drank to turn to whiskey. You can't blame them. And the author was a pilot. What was a first world pilot who survived? Yeah.

33:49It was a... It was just... Not necessarily the best book I've ever had, although it was good, but it was just how it turned something abstract into something much more real for me. And I think I have much better appreciation for the turmoil than just hearing the crazy side. You have a two week life expectancy. Yeah, it was winged 10, winged victory by winged the emits. It exists like 100 years old. It's like 99 cents on 99 cents on Amazon. Kindle. For a Kindle, obviously. Anything you hear about World War I, it just... This is going to sound so glib, but it just sounds like hell on earth. It sounds like it's just horrible for everyone involved and the scars that leaves. And they really thought that it was so savage that that would be the end of war. And then they bugged up the... Bugged up the funnel of it, so I wanted to set the stage for the second one. So... Well, that's all that's funny, no? No. Well, there's end on a high.

34:50My garage is in perfect order. Yes, you've got the slat walls. It's not all bad. I put up a hand-tail rack and yelled, I whooped like I just won a World Championship. Yeah, and we're working on good, anti-taps code outcomes for our clients. So... Yes. The little things in life. Okay, well, there's... Have a great trip to Ireland. Drink some Guinness for me. And we'll see you next time. Till next time. Cheers. All right, cheers, James, bye-bye. All right, folks, that's another episode of X-PAT Wealth. Under our belts, thank you for listening. I appreciate it and I appreciate you. If you're enjoying the show and would like to support the mission, which is to help ambitious X-PATS thrive in America, and ask you to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen, and all for consider leaving a rating and review. This stuff really does matter. Please help us get this information to the people who need it. That is your fellow X-PATS. Also, if you have any questions you would like answered on the show, you can get in touch with us at X-PAT Wealth at planfirstwealth.com.

35:52Just a quick reminder that this show is brought to you by Plan First Wealth. We are a US-based financial planner and wealth manager, and we help ambitious, successful international families living across the US to make the most of their opportunity and ultimately to retire happier. If you'd like to know more about how we might be able to help you retire, you can find us at our website, www.planfirstwealth.com or you can look me up on LinkedIn. Do get in touch with love to hear from you. As always, thank you to the podcast guys for their help producing this episode and the entire show. See you next week.