United Kingdom vs United States

United Kingdom

SettleMetric tax engine over the 2026/27 UK rules (HMRC Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances; self-employed National Insurance rates) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Apr 6, 2026

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Scheme gb-sole-trader at €60,000 revenue with 10% expenses, converted at the 2026-08-13 ECB reference rate (1 EUR = 0.8549 GBP) to £51,294 of revenue and £46,164.60 of profit. Income Tax on profit above the £12,570 Personal Allowance: £33,594.60 entirely within the 20% basic-rate band = £6,718.92. Class 4 National Insurance on the same £33,594.60 at 6% = £2,015.68. Class 2 is voluntary from 2024-25 and costs nothing at this profit. Total £8,734.60 of £51,294 = 17.03%. The limited-company route was computed on the same profile and came out worse at 19.6%, and the Scottish sole trader at 19.3%, so the plain English/Welsh/Northern Irish sole trader is the most favourable eligible scheme.

Notes

Unusually LOW for a high-income European country, and the reason is National Insurance rather than income tax: a self-employed person pays 6% on profit in the basic-rate band and 2% above it, with no employer-side charge and no separate health contribution because the NHS is funded from general taxation. An employee on the same money pays 8% plus 15% from the employer. The figure rises steeply above £50,270, where the 40% higher rate starts, and there is a 60% marginal band between £100,000 and £125,140 where the Personal Allowance is withdrawn.

United States

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 federal rules (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32; IRS self-employment tax; SSA 2026 contribution base) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.

Notes

The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.

United Kingdom

GOV.UK — Global Talent visa ↗

Official source

Data as of

Sep 20, 2026

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Classified from this country’s legalization data. The United Kingdom has NO digital-nomad visa and no general freelance or self-employment permit — the old Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and self-employment routes are closed. What exists for someone working for themselves is the Global Talent visa: up to 5 years at a time, no sponsor, self-employment allowed, open to any nationality, and it leads to settlement after 3 or 5 years. It is not granted for being a freelancer — it requires endorsement as a leader or potential leader in academia, the arts or digital technology — so it is a realistic long-stay path rather than a freelance permit. The High Potential Individual visa also permits self-employment without a sponsor but lasts only 2–3 years, cannot be extended and does not count towards settlement.

Notes

Everyone else works from the UK as a visitor. Since January 2024 the Immigration Rules explicitly allow a visitor to work remotely for an overseas employer or their own overseas business, provided that is not the primary purpose of the visit — which legalises the short stay but is capped at 6 months and is not a residence route.

United States

U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Visa Waiver Program; 8 CFR 214.2(b) visitor admissions ↗

Official source

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

The United States has no digital-nomad visa and no freelance or self-employment permit — the concept does not exist in US immigration law, which authorises work through a sponsoring employer, a treaty investment, or an immigrant petition. For a location-independent earner with an ordinary passport, the realistic ceiling is a visitor stay: 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, or up to six months on a B-1/B-2 visa, neither of which authorises work in the United States. The genuine long-stay routes all have a demanding filter — E-2 requires a treaty nationality plus substantial invested capital, O-1A and EB-1A require documented national or international acclaim, and the diversity lottery is a lottery. See data/countries/us/legalization.json for all six.

United Kingdom

ONS — Family spending in the UK, financial year ending 2025: workbook 2 table A23 (expenditure by household composition) and workbook 5 table 2.7 (housing expenditure by household composition) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Mar 31, 2025

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Built from the Living Costs and Food Survey column for NON-RETIRED ONE-PERSON HOUSEHOLDS (4.95 million of them), the closest published match to this criterion’s single-person profile. Total expenditure across COICOP divisions 1–12 is £378.90 a week. Removed: net rent £66.60 and maintenance and repair of the dwelling £10.10, both from workbook 5 table 2.7 for the same household type, since rent is excluded by definition and repairs fall on the landlord for a renter. Water, energy and service charges stay in. Health and education are also removed because the ONS does not publish them separately for this household type (they account for £13.00 a week of the total), so the basket sums exactly to its published parts. Remainder £289.20 a week x 52/12 = £1,253.20 a month, at the 2026-08-13 ECB cross-rate of 1 GBP = 1.349164 USD = $1691.

Notes

Measured spending by people who actually live alone in the UK, not a priced shopping list, so it reflects British habits: transport is the single largest line at $317 a month, ahead of food. Excludes health and education, which understates by about 4%. It is a UK average — London runs well above it and the north of England below.

United States

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 annual means (series CXU*LB0101M and CXU*LB0502M via the BLS public API) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.

Notes

Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.

United Kingdom

UNODC — Intentional homicide victims (CTS data), United Kingdom (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland), 2024 ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

UNODC records the UK as three separate jurisdictions, so the national rate is built from all three: England and Wales 522 victims, Scotland 45, Northern Ireland 19 = 586, against the ONS mid-2024 UK population of 69,281,400 = 0.846 per 100,000. Read from the UNODC bulk file dated 12 July 2026. One timing detail: UNODC’s "2024" for England and Wales is the year ending March 2025, which is the 522 figure ONS itself published as the lowest number since the year to March 2015 and the lowest rate since 1977.

Notes

Among the lowest in the dataset and about a sixth of the United States rate. Knife crime, not firearms, drives the English and Welsh figure. The three jurisdictions are close to each other: 0.93, 1.04 and 0.52 per 100,000 respectively on UNODC’s own 2023 rates.

United States

Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1 ↗

Official source

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.

United States

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — 2026 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period State-Level Public Use File, national total row ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 15, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.

Notes

Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.

United Kingdom

Financial Conduct Authority — Cryptoassets ↗

Official source

Data as of

Sep 20, 2026

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Holding, buying and selling cryptoassets is lawful for individuals and there is no restriction on it. Businesses carrying on cryptoasset activity have had to register with the FCA under the Money Laundering Regulations since 10 January 2020, and since 8 October 2023 any firm marketing cryptoassets to UK consumers falls under the FCA financial-promotions regime regardless of where the firm is based. Gains are taxed: HMRC treats cryptoassets as property for Capital Gains Tax, and trading as taxable income.

Notes

Not crypto-friendly in the tax sense — there is no exemption of the kind Portugal or Germany offer on long-held holdings. Two consumer restrictions are worth knowing: the FCA has banned the sale of crypto derivatives and exchange-traded notes to retail consumers, and cryptoassets are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so an exchange failure is not underwritten.

United States

IRS — Digital assets: for U.S. tax purposes digital assets are property, not currency, and income from them is taxable ↗

Official source

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.

United Kingdom

GOV.UK — Take cash in and out of the UK ↗

Official source

Data as of

Sep 20, 2026

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Inputs weighed: no exchange or capital controls on moving personal funds into or out of the country, and no limit on the size of a bank transfer; sterling floats freely; non-residents may open UK bank accounts subject to the banks’ own identity checks rather than a legal bar; and the only cross-border reporting duty on an individual is a declaration of cash of £10,000 or more carried in or out of Great Britain, with a penalty of up to £5,000 and seizure for failing to declare. Residents are taxed on worldwide income and must report it through Self Assessment, which is ordinary for a developed economy rather than a control on money.

Notes

Opening a first UK bank account without a UK address or credit history is the practical friction, not the law — it is a bank compliance problem, and it is why many new arrivals start with an e-money account.

United States

FinCEN — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR): required when foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any time in the year ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.

Notes

The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.

United Kingdom

Ofcom — Securing the future of the universal postal service (2025 review of the universal postal service and other postal regulation) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 22, 2025

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Inputs: Royal Mail must deliver to every UK address at a uniform price. First Class letters keep a six-day-a-week next-working-day service, but Ofcom cut the headline target from 93% to 90% delivered next day in its 2025 reform, with 99% within three working days. Second Class was cut from six days a week to alternate weekdays, delivered within three working days at a 95% target and 99% within five. Ofcom opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s 2025/26 delivery performance. Next-day delivery therefore exists nationwide, which is the "excellent" test, but half the letter service is now a 1–3 day product and the regulator has both lowered the bar and is investigating failure to clear it — which is the "good" band.

Notes

This grades the regulated postal service, which is what has an official source. The UK parcel market is much faster than the letter service and is where most people’s experience comes from, but its carrier and parcel-locker networks could not be verified here — see the delivery-methods row.

United States

United States Postal Service — service commitments and network (Ground Advantage, Priority Mail), alongside UPS, FedEx and Amazon Logistics coverage ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.

Notes

Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.

United Kingdom

GOV.UK — Tax and duty on goods sent from abroad ↗

Official source

Data as of

Sep 20, 2026

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

The UK left the EU customs union, so every consignment from abroad is cleared. Customs duty is relieved on non-excise goods worth £135 or less; above that, duty applies at tariff rates. VAT is due on everything except gifts of £39 or less — on consignments of £135 or less the overseas seller is required to charge it at the point of sale, above that the carrier collects it before delivery and adds a handling fee. All the major international carriers deliver door to door and clearance is routine rather than uncertain. Northern Ireland follows different rules for goods "at risk" of entering the EU.

Notes

The £135 threshold is low enough that most ordinary online orders from outside the UK carry VAT, and the sting is usually the carrier’s handling fee rather than the tax. Nothing is blocked and nothing is unpredictable, which is what separates this from significant-friction.

United States

Executive Order 14324 of 30 July 2025, Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries, continued by Executive Order 14388 of 20 February 2026 (91 FR 9433) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Feb 20, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

This changed fundamentally in 2025 and is the fact most likely to be out of date in anyone's head. The United States used to have the most generous de minimis threshold in the world — $800 duty- and tax-free per person per day — which made ordering from abroad trivially easy. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries from 29 August 2025, and Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension in February 2026. Every inbound shipment is now dutiable regardless of value, postal shipments carry duties set by the order, and carriers charge brokerage on top. The carriers themselves are excellent and clearance is quick, so this is friction of cost and paperwork rather than unreliability — but a €40 parcel from Europe now arrives with a bill attached.

United Kingdom

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United Kingdom ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Method

Median of the 2023 daily country medians over 344 days and 32,367,951 tests. Monthly medians ran 46.9–50.3 Mbps with no seasonal pattern. 2023 is the last complete year M-Lab publishes for the UK — the 2024 file stops on 26 March — and it is the year the other countries in this dataset are measured on.

Notes

M-Lab measures what a browser-based test achieves end to end, which reads well below the line speeds advertised by UK ISPs and below Ofcom’s own connection-based figures. It is used across this dataset because it is the only free, licence-clean source measured the same way everywhere, so compare it with other countries here rather than with a national regulator’s number.

United States

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.

Notes

The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.

United Kingdom

GOV.UK — English language requirements for visas and settlement ↗

Official source

Data as of

Sep 20, 2026

Verified

Sep 20, 2026

Notes

English is the national language and the language of government, courts, healthcare and business throughout the United Kingdom. Welsh has equal official standing in Wales and Scottish Gaelic and Irish have recognised status, but no part of the UK requires anything other than English of a resident. The direction of the requirement runs the other way here: most work and settlement visas require the APPLICANT to prove English at B1 or higher.

United States

Executive Order 14224 of 1 March 2025 — Designating English as the Official Language of the United States (90 FR, doc 2025-03694) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Mar 1, 2025

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.