Praying for a job that pays little or no tax? There’s a catch

Some people go to great lengths to avoid tax – but it comes for us all in some way shape or form.

Indeed, thanks to Jeremy Hunt’s tendency to see a tax threshold and freeze it, regardless of inflation eating away at Britain’s wallets, today’s Conservative Government is on track to lead the biggest tax-increasing Parliament since records began. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, the nation’s tax burden is set to reach a 70-year high.

But what if you could work without having to worry about paying taxes, or filling out the dreaded self-assessment form? As it turns out, a handful of vocations do indeed allow for generous tax exemptions – although the privilege is often not without its downsides. Here, Telegraph Money reveals which jobs come with tax advantages – and the strict terms you’ll have to meet to get them.

Tax breaks for religious roles

Contrary to popular belief, religious leaders do pay tax. Guidance on the Church of England website, for example, urges ministers to fill out their tax return – as clergy are paid through a payroll.

Catholic priests, meanwhile, are regarded as officeholders for income tax purposes, and their remuneration is taxable as general earnings.

In cases where a religious leader lives in accommodation for the purpose of their role that they don’t own, such as a vicarage, they are not personally liable to pay council tax as it is down to the building’s owner. The owner may ask them to contribute to the council tax costs, but this will vary on a case-bycase basis.

Nuns and monks, as it turns out, do not pay council tax either – if they live in a convent or monastery. As part of this, your main role must also be in prayer, contemplation, education and/or the relief of suffering. You must also have no income, save for any pension from former employment, or any wealth that you had before taking the role.

Reduced tax for PhD students

Students studying for a PhD who receive a stipend for their research do not pay tax on it, and therefore it doesn’t need to be declared via self-assessment. However, any additional salary paid by a university to teach classes, or pay received while acting as a research assistant, for instance, is taxable.

The typical range for a PhD stipend is between £15,000 to £18,000, although some can be far more generous.

You may also be off the hook for council tax; PhD students living in university halls of residence do not need to pay it. If you live elsewhere, and live with only other full-time students (studying for at least 21 hours a week, on a course at least a year long) the whole household will be exempt from council tax.

However, if just one person in the household has to pay council tax, the property will no longer be exempt – but you might qualify for a discount instead.

Seafarers can claim back tax

If you really want to escape tax, your best bet is to head out to sea. Seafarers benefit from a rare form of tax relief, appropriately named the Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction, where you can claim back 100pc of the tax paid on onboard earnings.

To qualify, you must have worked on a ship ( so this doesn’t apply to oil rig workers), and be at sea for a certain amount of time outside of the UK.

So how long do you have to spend at sea to claim back that sweet tax relief? Oh, only a year.

HM Revenue and Customs ( HMRC) advises that seafarers keep a robust record of any hotel receipts, travel vouchers, passports, visas, and logs of the ships they carry out their duties on. The taxman may also contact their employer to confirm that they actually did work on the ship.

Notably, the Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction ( SED) is tax relief – this means income is still taxable at the time it’s received, and seafarers have to claim the tax back via self-assessment. Trade unions fought long and hard with HMRC for the SED, but many seafarers still forget to claim it.

Unlike the aforementioned clergymen and students, some seafarers are relatively well-remunerated. A Chief Steward on a ship could expect a monthly pay of between £1,700 and £3,000, according to trade publication Superyacht UK. For captains, monthly pay can reach as high as £10,000 for very experienced captains.

Seafarers who are at sea for a year can claim back 100pc of tax on onboard earnings