Am I UK-resident if I work abroad but visit family weekly?

It depends on how the days add up across the tax year and whether you can meet the full-time work abroad test. The Automatic Overseas Test 3 needs sufficient hours worked overseas (35+ hours per week average over the reference period), fewer than 91 UK days, and fewer than 31 UK working days. Weekly family visits that breach either day cap, or any UK working days that push you over 31, usually break the full-time abroad test and push you into the Sufficient Ties Test. With a spouse, child and accommodation in the UK you typically have at least 3 ties as a leaver, which caps your UK days at under 46 before you become resident again.

What counts as a working day in the UK?

HMRC defines a UK workday as a day on which you do more than 3 hours of work while physically present in the UK. Work includes employment duties, self-employed work, training the employer pays for, and travel time that is part of the job (but not normal commuting). A day where you do 2 hours and 45 minutes of laptop work in a London hotel does not count; a day where you do 3 hours 5 minutes does. The 3-hour threshold is the same for the Sufficient Ties work tie (40+ UK workdays) and for the Automatic Overseas full-time-abroad test (under 31 UK workdays).

How does the SRT handle exceptional circumstances?

If you are stranded in the UK by events beyond your control - serious illness, bereavement involving an immediate family member, civil unrest, natural disaster or a national lockdown - HMRC may disregard up to 60 days of UK presence per tax year. The bar is high: the circumstances must be genuinely exceptional, the days must be ones you could not realistically have avoided, and you must leave the UK as soon as the circumstances allow. The cap is 60 days regardless of how long the event lasts, so a 90-day hospital stay still only disregards 60 days. Keep documentary evidence: medical letters, flight cancellation notices, embassy advice.

What is split-year treatment?

Split-year treatment lets you treat one tax year as two parts: a UK-resident portion and an overseas portion, with worldwide income only taxed during the UK portion. It applies in 8 specific cases covering departures (Cases 1, 2, 3) and arrivals (Cases 4 through 8). You must already meet the SRT residence test for the year overall, and satisfy the gating conditions for at least one case. Split-year is automatic if the gates are met - you do not elect into it. Without split-year a year is fully UK-resident or fully non-resident, which can be punitive if you move mid-year with a large bonus or sale on the wrong side of the move date.

Is non-dom status still available?

No. The non-dom remittance basis was abolished from 6 April 2025. It is replaced by the 4-year Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime for new arrivals to the UK who have not been UK tax-resident in any of the previous 10 tax years. The new regime is residence-based rather than domicile-based, gives 100% relief on qualifying foreign income and gains for the first 4 years of UK residence, and ends automatically after the 4th year. Pre-2025 unremitted income falls under transitional rules including the Temporary Repatriation Facility.

What is the FIG regime?

The Foreign Income and Gains regime is the post-April 2025 replacement for the non-dom remittance basis. It exempts qualifying foreign income (employment income for non-UK duties, foreign dividends, interest, rental, pension and similar) and foreign gains from UK tax for the first 4 tax years of UK residence, provided you were not UK-resident in any of the previous 10 tax years. Claim it on the Self Assessment return. You forfeit the Personal Allowance and CGT annual exempt amount for any year you claim FIG. After 4 years, worldwide income becomes UK-taxable in the normal way.

Do I need to file Self Assessment if I am non-resident with UK rental income?

Yes. UK rental income is UK-source income regardless of where the landlord lives, so HMRC taxes it for non-residents through the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme. The tenant or letting agent must withhold 20% basic rate unless you have an approval to receive rent gross under form NRL1 (individuals) or NRL2 (companies). Either way the rental profit goes on the Self Assessment SA100 return with the SA105 property pages, plus the SA109 supplementary pages declaring your non-resident status. You can claim the Personal Allowance as a non-resident if you are an EEA national or a UK citizen.

How long does HMRC accept exceptional circumstances?

The 60-day disregard is a hard annual cap, not a per-event cap. If you are stuck in the UK for 90 days because of a hospital stay, only 60 of those count as exceptional - the other 30 add to your normal day count. Across multiple events in the same year the 60 days are aggregated. Across multiple tax years, each year has its own fresh 60-day allowance. HMRC has historically applied the relief narrowly: dental treatment, missed flights you could have rebooked, and visa delays you could have foreseen do not qualify. Document the circumstances contemporaneously and keep evidence for at least 5 years and 10 months after the relevant 31 January filing deadline.

What is the difference between residence and domicile?

Residence is a year-by-year test of where you physically live based on day-counting under the SRT. Domicile is a long-term, common-law concept of where you have your permanent home and family roots, often inherited at birth from your father. You can be UK-resident but non-UK domiciled, or UK-domiciled but non-UK resident. Pre-April 2025 the distinction mattered because non-doms could claim the remittance basis. Post-April 2025 domicile still matters for inheritance tax (a long-term-resident test based on 10 of the last 20 years of residence replaces deemed-domicile from April 2025) but not for income tax or CGT.

Can I be tax-resident in two countries?

Yes. Domestic residence rules in different countries can both catch you in the same year - for example UK Sufficient Ties Test resident plus French 183-day resident. The UK has Double Taxation Agreements with around 130 countries that contain a tie-breaker clause to allocate primary taxing rights when this happens. The OECD Model tie-breaker tests, applied in order: permanent home, centre of vital interests (economic and personal ties), habitual abode (where you actually live most), and nationality. If none resolves it, the two competent authorities resolve by mutual agreement. The DTA tie-breaker only affects treaty relief; under domestic UK law you remain resident under the SRT.

How do I prove I left the UK on a specific date?

HMRC accepts a combination of evidence: passport stamps where issued, boarding passes, airline e-ticket confirmations, container shipping documents, removal company invoices, new tenancy or employment contracts overseas, foreign tax residency certificates, foreign bank statements showing account activity, utility bills at the new address, and school enrolment records for children. Keep all of it for at least 6 years. Day-counting is the single biggest evidential issue in SRT enquiries - HMRC will reconstruct your movements from the data they hold (PAYE records, eBorders flight data, credit card transactions) and the burden falls on you to rebut.

UK Statutory Residence Test (2026/27)

The Statutory Residence Test (SRT) decides whether you are a UK tax resident for a given tax year. The outcome determines whether the UK can tax your worldwide income and gains or only your UK-source income, and now also whether you qualify for the post-April 2025 Foreign Income and Gains regime that replaced non-dom status. This is the canonical deep-dive: the three test layers, the 8 split-year cases, day-counting mechanics, exceptional circumstances, the FIG regime, DTA tie-breakers, and worked examples for expats, arrivers and returners. Every rule cites the HMRC guidance RDR3 or the underlying legislation in Finance Act 2013 Schedule 45.

1. SRT overview

The Statutory Residence Test was introduced by Finance Act 2013 Schedule 45, taking effect from 6 April 2013. Before that, UK tax residence was decided under a tangle of case law going back to the early 20th century: cases like Levene v IRC (1928), IRC v Lysaght (1928) and Reed v Clark (1985) which produced principles around availability of accommodation, presence patterns, and habitual visits, but no bright-line tests. The result was decades of expensive litigation and a system where high-net-worth taxpayers genuinely could not predict their residence status from year to year.

The SRT replaced all of that with a deterministic flowchart based on counting two things: days present in the UK (the midnight rule) and connecting factors (ties) to the UK. It operates in three sequential layers - if you pass any automatic test at one layer, you stop there:

Automatic Overseas Tests - pass any one and you are conclusively non-resident.
Automatic UK Tests - pass any one and you are conclusively UK-resident.
Sufficient Ties Test - if neither layer above resolves, count UK ties and compare to a day-count matrix.

Every UK tax year (6 April to 5 April) is tested independently. The SRT determines residence at the level of the entire year, though split-year treatment lets some moving-year cases be apportioned. For the wider tax-take context across European jurisdictions see UK tax vs EU comparison. The definitive HMRC guidance is the RDR3 Statutory Residence Test guidance (retrieved 2026-05-22).

2. Why residence matters

UK tax residence is the gateway concept of the entire personal tax code. The same gross salary or gain can be taxed at 0% or 47% depending on which side of the residence line you fall.

If you are UK-resident you are taxed on your worldwide income and gains as they arise, with credit for foreign tax paid under double taxation treaties. Worldwide means every salary, dividend, rental, royalty, interest, pension and capital gain anywhere on Earth comes onto the UK tax return. UK Income Tax bands apply (20% / 40% / 45% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland's six bands run 19% to 48%). Capital Gains Tax is 18% / 24% on residential property and 18% / 24% on most other assets from 6 April 2025, with a £3,000 annual exempt amount.

If you are non-UK resident you are taxed only on UK-source income. UK-source includes: UK employment duties (counted day by day), UK rental income, UK partnership profits, certain UK pensions, dividends from UK-resident companies, and gains on UK residential property and UK land (the Non-Resident Capital Gains Tax regime since 6 April 2015, extended to commercial property and indirect interests from 6 April 2019). Non-residents generally cannot use the Personal Allowance unless they are EEA nationals, UK citizens, Crown employees or qualify under a treaty - and even then claiming PA limits relief under certain DTAs.

The non-dom regime was abolished from 6 April 2025. Before that date, individuals who were UK-resident but non-UK domiciled could claim the remittance basis: foreign income and gains escaped UK tax unless physically brought to the UK. Post-April 2025 the regime is replaced by a 4-year Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime available only to new arrivers who have not been UK-resident in any of the previous 10 tax years. The shift is policy-led announced in the Spring Budget 2024 and legislated in Finance (No. 2) Act 2024. Full details: gov.uk abolition of the remittance basis of taxation (retrieved 2026-05-22). For the Budget context see Budget 2024 summary.

Residence also drives National Insurance (more nuanced - based on social-security coordination agreements rather than the SRT alone), inheritance tax (now also residence-based for the long-term resident test from April 2025, replacing deemed-domicile), and access to ISAs, Premium Bonds and tax-advantaged pension contributions. Non-residents cannot contribute to a UK ISA. UK pensions remain accessible but with relief capped at the Basic Amount (£3,600 gross) once UK earnings stop. State Pension entitlement is unaffected - that is determined by NI qualifying years, not residence.

3. Automatic Overseas Tests

The SRT starts at the top of the flowchart. Pass any Automatic Overseas Test and you are conclusively non-UK resident for the year, no further tests run. There are three tests; they all use UK day counts based on the midnight rule.

Test 1: Leaver short-stay. You are automatically non-resident if you were UK-resident in one or more of the 3 previous tax years AND you spend fewer than 16 days in the UK in the current tax year. This test catches outright leavers who minimise UK visits in the immediate years after departure. Most expatriates use this once their visits drop to occasional family weeks.

Test 2: Arriver short-stay. You are automatically non-resident if you were NOT UK-resident in any of the 3 previous tax years AND you spend fewer than 46 days in the UK in the current tax year. This is the test long-term non-residents rely on: once you have been outside the UK system for 3 full years, you can spend up to 45 nights in the UK each year without becoming resident.

Test 3: Full-time work abroad. You are automatically non-resident if you work full-time overseas and:

You work sufficient hours overseas in the tax year (35+ hours per week on average across the reference period, computed using HMRC's formula in RDR3 Annex A which strips out gaps and adjusts for leave).
You have no significant break from overseas work (no period of 31+ days without work, except annual leave, sick leave or parenting leave that would normally be paid).
The number of UK workdays (3+ hours of work per day in the UK) is fewer than 31.
The number of UK days (midnight presence) is fewer than 91.

Test 3 is the practical test for UK citizens who take overseas postings and want to break UK residence cleanly. The 91-day cap is the binding constraint for most - anything more than three months of UK presence per year breaks the test, regardless of how hard you worked abroad. The 31 UK workdays cap catches people who try to run a UK business remotely while based overseas. The sufficient-hours requirement is forensically tested in enquiries: HMRC will ask for employment contracts, work diaries, payroll records and travel logs. The legal source is Finance Act 2013 Schedule 45 paragraph 14 and the HMRC guidance is RDR3 (retrieved 2026-05-22).

4. Automatic UK Tests

If no Automatic Overseas Test applies, the SRT moves to the Automatic UK Tests. Pass any one and you are conclusively UK-resident, no further tests run.

Test 1: 183-day rule. You are automatically UK-resident if you spend 183 days or more in the UK in the tax year. This is the historical anchor of UK residence law and survives the SRT unchanged. 183 days is half the year rounded up - the threshold most countries use as the baseline for tax residence under domestic law and the OECD Model Treaty.

Test 2: UK home test. You are automatically UK-resident if:

You have a home in the UK at some point in the tax year, and
That UK home is available to you for a continuous period of at least 91 days (at least 30 of which fall in the current tax year), and
You are present at that UK home on at least 30 separate days in the tax year, and
You either have no overseas home, OR if you have one or more overseas homes you are present at any of them for fewer than 30 days in the tax year.

The home test catches people who have a London flat or family house in the UK and visit briefly but frequently while claiming non-residence. "Home" is interpreted by reference to the everyday meaning - it is not the same as mere accommodation. A hotel room, a friend's spare room or a short-term Airbnb is not a home; a property you own or rent on a long-term basis and treat as your settled household is. Multiple homes are possible. The 30-day threshold for overseas presence is the key safety valve: genuine expatriates who maintain a UK pied-a-terre but live primarily in their overseas home (more than 30 days there) escape Test 2.

Test 3: Full-time work in the UK. You are automatically UK-resident if you work full-time in the UK for a 365-day period that falls (in whole or in part) within the tax year. The mechanics:

You work sufficient hours (35+ hours per week average) in the UK over the 365-day reference period, applying HMRC's formula in RDR3 Annex A.
More than 75% of your workdays in that period are UK workdays (3+ hours of work in the UK).
At least one workday in the period falls in the current tax year.
You have no significant break from UK work.

Test 3 is the standard residence outcome for foreign workers arriving on Skilled Worker, Health and Care, or Global Talent visas to take up UK employment. It is also the test that catches secondees: a French software engineer on a 12-month UK secondment will almost always be UK-resident under Automatic UK Test 3 even if they only arrive halfway through the tax year.

5. Sufficient Ties Test

If no Automatic Overseas Test and no Automatic UK Test applies, the SRT drops into the Sufficient Ties Test. You count how many UK ties you have, look up your day count, and compare to the threshold matrix.

There are five possible ties. The first four apply to both arrivers and leavers; the fifth (country tie) only applies to leavers.

Family tie. You have a UK family tie if any of the following are UK tax-resident in the tax year:

Your spouse or civil partner (unless you are separated under a court order or in circumstances likely to be permanent).
Your common-law partner (a person you live with as if married).
A child of yours under 18, unless you spend less than 61 days with them in the UK in the tax year.

The family tie is the single largest residence trap for working expatriates whose family stays behind. A husband working in Dubai whose wife and minor child remain in Surrey will have the family tie even if he never sees them in the UK - the tie depends on their UK residence status, not joint presence.

Accommodation tie. You have a UK accommodation tie if a place to live is available to you in the UK for a continuous period of at least 91 days in the tax year, AND you spend at least one night there. If the accommodation is a close relative's home (parent, sibling, grandparent, child, grandchild) the threshold rises to 16+ nights. Hotel rooms below the 91-day availability threshold do not count. An empty rental property held vacant counts (it is available to you); a tenanted property let to a third party does not.

Work tie. You have a UK work tie if you do at least 40 days of work in the UK in the tax year, where a workday is 3+ hours of work. This is the same definition as Automatic UK Test 3 and Automatic Overseas Test 3. Travel days that involve work activity count; days of pure transit do not.

90-day tie. You have a UK 90-day tie if you spent 90 days or more in the UK in either or both of the 2 previous tax years. This is a look-back tie that catches recent leavers and habitual visitors. It does not look at the current year - only the two preceding tax years.

Country tie (leavers only). You have a country tie if you were UK-resident in one or more of the 3 previous tax years AND the UK is the country in which you are present at midnight on more days than any other single country in the current tax year. Even one more UK night than any other country triggers the tie. The country tie is checked using midnight counts: it does not matter whether you "live" anywhere - it tests where your nights cluster.

Day matrix. Count your ties, count your UK days, then read off the threshold:

UK ties	Arriver day threshold (resident at or above)	Leaver day threshold
4 or more	Always resident if 4+ ties	16+ days
4	46+ days	16+ days
3	91+ days	46+ days
2	121+ days	91+ days
1	183+ days	121+ days
0	Non-resident	183+ days

Read the table as: if your day count meets or exceeds the threshold for your tie count, you are UK-resident. "Arriver" means you were not UK-resident in any of the previous 3 tax years; "leaver" means you were UK-resident in at least one of the previous 3 tax years. Leavers face tighter thresholds because the rules are designed to catch people pretending to leave while keeping their UK life intact. The 183-day cell at zero ties for leavers is academic - 183 days already triggers Automatic UK Test 1, so the Sufficient Ties Test never runs at that day count.

6. Split year treatment

Under the default SRT logic, a tax year is either wholly UK-resident or wholly non-resident. That can produce perverse outcomes for genuine mid-year moves: someone who emigrates on 1 July 2026 having earned a large bonus in June 2026 in the UK, then earned a large foreign salary from August 2026, could be hit with UK tax on the foreign salary if they are UK-resident for the whole year.

Split year treatment is the statutory fix. It splits the tax year into two parts: a UK part (taxed as UK-resident on worldwide income) and an overseas part (taxed as non-resident on UK-source income only). Split-year is automatic if the gating conditions for any of the 8 cases are met - you do not elect into it. The 8 cases are mutually exclusive in terms of what they trigger, though multiple gates can apply and HMRC picks the earliest split date generated.

Departure cases:

Case 1: Starting full-time work abroad. You begin to work full-time overseas (sufficient hours, no significant break), with fewer than 31 UK workdays in the overseas part of the year and fewer than the apportioned 91-day cap of UK presence.
Case 2: Partner of someone starting full-time work abroad. Your spouse or partner qualifies under Case 1 and you accompany them, meeting reduced UK presence caps in the overseas part.
Case 3: Ceasing to have a home in the UK. You stop having any UK home, have not had one since the split date, and spend fewer than 16 days in the UK after the split. Within 6 months of the split you must have a sufficient connection to a foreign country.

Arrival cases:

Case 4: Starting to have a UK home. You did not have a UK home at the start of the tax year, you start having a UK home and continue throughout the rest of the year, and you have no overseas home from the date your UK home starts.
Case 5: Starting full-time work in the UK. You begin a 365-day-or-more period of UK full-time work in the year, fail the sufficient overseas hours test for the period before that, and were non-resident in the prior year.
Case 6: Stopping full-time work abroad. You stop a period of full-time overseas work in the year and you were non-resident in the prior year (typically the return leg of a Case 1 departure several years earlier).
Case 7: Partner of someone stopping full-time work abroad. The mirror of Case 2 - you accompany a returning partner whose Case 6 split applies.
Case 8: Starting to have a home in the UK only. You start to have a UK home and meet the relevant arriver tie/day count tests for the UK part of the year.

Each case has its own statutory gating conditions in Finance Act 2013 Schedule 45 Parts 3-4. HMRC's RDR3 contains worked examples for each. Practical points: Cases 1, 2 and 3 cover most departures; Case 4 and Case 8 cover most arrivals with no prior UK home; Case 5 covers most arrivals taking up UK employment. The most common split date in practice is the day a long-term overseas contract starts or ends.

During the UK part of a split year you are taxed on worldwide income and gains; during the overseas part only on UK-source. CGT disposals on the overseas side of the split are non-UK except for UK land and certain UK assets. For arrivers eligible for the FIG regime (see below), split-year stacks with FIG: the UK part of the year falls under FIG protection for foreign income.

7. Day-counting rules

Day counting under the SRT looks simple but the details matter. Get day counts wrong by 5 days and you can flip from non-resident to resident, with worldwide tax consequences.

The midnight rule. A day counts as a UK day if you are present in the UK at the end of the day (i.e. at midnight). Arrive in London at 11pm and the day counts. Leave at 9pm and the day does not. A return trip that crosses midnight overseas does not add a UK day. The midnight rule is mechanical and unambiguous - it is the single most heavily-tested fact in SRT enquiries.

Transit exemption. A day where you arrive in the UK as a transit passenger and leave for another country the following day does not count, provided you do not engage in any activity substantially unrelated to your transit (no work, no business meetings, no sightseeing beyond what is normal for a transit passenger). The transit must be genuine onward travel, not a stopover. A flight from New York to Frankfurt that stops at Heathrow for a few hours en route counts as transit; a Heathrow overnight before a flight to Frankfurt the next afternoon is still transit if you stay airside or in a transit hotel.

Deeming rule for frequent flyers. Beyond the midnight rule, an anti-avoidance "deeming rule" can add days to your count. If you have at least 3 UK ties AND you have spent more than 30 "qualifying days" in the UK in the tax year AND you were UK-resident in any of the 3 previous tax years, then for every day after the first 30 where you arrive but leave the same day (no midnight), the day is deemed to count anyway. The deeming rule stops people gaming the midnight rule with day trips into the UK to attend meetings before flying out again the same evening.

Workdays. A UK workday is a day on which you do more than 3 hours of work in the UK. Work means any work-related activity: employment duties, self-employed work, training paid by the employer, and business travel time. A day with 2 hours 55 minutes of work is not a workday; a day with 3 hours 5 minutes is. Workdays matter for: Automatic Overseas Test 3 (under 31), Automatic UK Test 3 (UK-workday percentage), Sufficient Ties work tie (40+ days).

Exceptional circumstances. Up to 60 days of UK presence per tax year can be disregarded if they arose from exceptional circumstances beyond your control that prevent you from leaving the UK, and you leave as soon as those circumstances allow. Examples HMRC has accepted: serious illness or injury requiring UK hospitalisation, immediate family bereavement, national lockdown (COVID-19 lockdowns from March 2020 generated thousands of claims), civil unrest, natural disasters. Examples HMRC has rejected: missed flights you could rebook, visa appointments you scheduled, dental treatment. The 60-day cap is annual, not per event - a 90-day hospital stay only buys 60 days of relief, the other 30 count normally.

8. Non-dom abolition and the FIG regime

The biggest change to UK personal tax since the SRT itself took effect on 6 April 2025: the non-dom remittance basis was abolished and replaced by a residence-based 4-year Foreign Income and Gains regime.

Pre-6 April 2025: the remittance basis. Individuals who were UK-resident but non-UK domiciled could claim the remittance basis. Under this regime foreign income and gains escaped UK tax unless physically brought to the UK (remitted). The claim cost the loss of the Personal Allowance and CGT annual exempt amount for the year, and after 7 of the previous 9 tax years of UK residence an annual Remittance Basis Charge of £30,000 (rising to £60,000 after 12 of 14 years) applied. The regime was famously generous and famously controversial - around 70,000 individuals claimed it at peak in the mid-2000s, dropping to roughly 38,000 by 2022-23.

Post-6 April 2025: the FIG regime. The remittance basis is gone. Domicile is irrelevant for Income Tax and CGT. The new Foreign Income and Gains regime applies on a residence basis: you qualify if you become UK-resident having not been UK-resident in any of the previous 10 tax years. The regime gives 100% relief from UK tax on qualifying foreign income (foreign employment income for non-UK duties, foreign trade profits, foreign property income, foreign investment income, foreign pensions) and on foreign chargeable gains. Available for 4 tax years from the year of arrival. After the 4 years end, full worldwide UK taxation applies.

Mechanical features of FIG:

Must claim on the Self Assessment SA100 return for the relevant year (on the SA109 supplementary residence pages).
Claiming for a year forfeits the Personal Allowance and CGT annual exempt amount for that year.
Each of the 4 eligible years can be claimed or not claimed independently.
Qualifying foreign income/gains can be remitted to the UK without further tax during the 4-year window - no remittance restriction.
Distributions from non-resident trusts within the 4-year window can qualify as FIG if specific conditions are met.
Trust protections that existed under the pre-2025 regime are largely removed - the income tax and CGT charge falls on the UK-resident settlor/beneficiary as the income arises.

Transitional reliefs. Three reliefs ease the cliff edge for existing non-doms:

Temporary Repatriation Facility (TRF). For tax years 2025-26 to 2027-28, prior-year unremitted foreign income and gains can be brought to the UK at a flat tax rate (12% for 2025-26 and 2026-27, then 15% for 2027-28) rather than the marginal rate that would otherwise apply. Designed to encourage remittance and unwind decades of offshore stockpiles.
CGT rebasing. Personally-held foreign assets owned on 5 April 2017 can be rebased to their 5 April 2017 market value for CGT purposes on disposal during 2025-26 or later. Eligible for individuals who claimed the remittance basis in any year and who were non-UK domiciled (and not deemed-domiciled) at 30 October 2024.
50% reduction for 2025-26. A one-off 50% reduction in foreign income chargeable to UK tax in 2025-26 for individuals who would not qualify for FIG and were on the remittance basis in 2024-25. Designed to soften the immediate impact.

Inheritance tax. Domicile remains relevant only for IHT, but the test is being replaced. From 6 April 2025, deemed-domicile is gone. An individual is a "long-term resident" for IHT if they have been UK-resident in 10 or more of the previous 20 tax years. Long-term residents have worldwide assets in their IHT net; everyone else has only UK assets. The transition out works on a tapered tail: long-term residence persists for 3-10 tail years depending on how long you were resident. Full details: gov.uk abolition of the remittance basis of taxation (retrieved 2026-05-22).

9. Worked examples

Example A: British expat in Singapore. Sarah moved from London to Singapore in April 2022 with her family on a 5-year posting. For 2026/27 she visits the UK 25 days to see her mother in Manchester. Prior 3 tax years (2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26) she was non-resident. Run the flowchart:

Automatic Overseas Test 1: she was NOT UK-resident in any of the 3 prior years, so Test 1 (which requires prior residence) does not apply.
Automatic Overseas Test 2: she was not UK-resident in any of the 3 prior years AND UK days (25) are under 46 - Test 2 passes. Non-resident, no further test needed.

Sarah is conclusively non-UK resident for 2026/27. Her Singapore salary, dividends and gains all escape UK tax. Any UK rental from a London flat she owns goes on SA105 + SA109 as UK-source income for a non-resident.

Example B: US software engineer arriving July 2026 on Skilled Worker visa. Marcus arrives in the UK on 5 July 2026 to start a 3-year contract at a Manchester technology employer. He was non-resident in all prior years. He works full-time at the UK office from arrival, spending 25+ workdays in the UK every month. Run the flowchart for 2026/27:

Automatic Overseas Tests: Test 1 not applicable (no prior UK residence). Test 2: UK days will far exceed 46 by April 2027 (around 270 days). Test 3 (full-time abroad) fails because he is not working abroad.
Automatic UK Test 1 (183 days): yes, easily exceeded - resident.
Automatic UK Test 3 (full-time UK work): also passes - he works full-time in the UK for a 365-day period that includes part of 2026/27, with more than 75% UK workdays.

Marcus is UK-resident for 2026/27. Case 5 split-year treatment applies because he starts full-time UK work in the year and was non-resident before: 6 April to 4 July 2026 is the overseas part, 5 July 2026 to 5 April 2027 the UK part. His US salary earned before 5 July escapes UK tax under split-year. Because Marcus has not been UK-resident in any of the prior 10 tax years, he qualifies for the FIG regime: he can claim on his US dividend, interest and any vesting US RSUs for foreign duties to be UK tax-free for the first 4 years of UK residence.

Example C: Returning UK citizen after 5 years abroad. Priya returns to the UK in October 2026 after 5 years working in Mumbai. She and her family maintain a London house throughout (let to a tenant for the first 4 years, vacant from May 2026 in anticipation of return). Prior to October 2026 she visits the UK for 80 days in 2026/27 (family, house preparation, meetings). She was UK-resident before 2021-22. By the end of 2026/27 she has been in the UK 80 + ~180 days = 260 days. But assume for this example she does the SRT calculation BEFORE her return planning, at the 80-day point in early autumn:

Automatic Overseas Tests: she was UK-resident in some of the previous 10 years, so she is a "leaver" not arriver. Test 1 needs under 16 UK days - she has 80, fails. Test 2 requires non-residence in all 3 prior years - she meets that (2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26 all non-resident) but UK days (80) exceed 46, fails Test 2 too. Test 3 fails because she is not working full-time abroad in 2026 once she relocates.
Automatic UK Test 1 (183 days): if final count is 260, yes. Resident.
Tie analysis if the test had stopped at the 80-day mark: accommodation (UK home available 91+ days, used 1+ night) - yes. Family (spouse and minor children UK-resident) - yes. 90-day tie (UK days in either of 2 prior years 90+) - check. Work tie (40+ UK workdays) - check. As an arriver-or-leaver-by-pattern she has at least 2-3 ties. With 3 ties as a leaver, the day threshold is 46+ to be resident. 80 days already exceeds that.

Priya is UK-resident for 2026/27. She is eligible for Case 4 / Case 8 split-year treatment if she did not have a UK home before October 2026 - but here she did (the London house, vacant from May), so the split-year case depends on timing of moving in. Because she was UK-resident in multiple years before 2021-22, she is NOT a "new arriver" with 10 clear years - she fails the FIG regime qualification (10-year clear-residence test). Her overseas Mumbai income from October 2026 onwards is UK-taxable on the worldwide basis under standard rules.

10. Practical compliance

The SRT is administrative as well as substantive. Getting it right requires evidence-led record-keeping and the right Self Assessment paperwork.

Day-counting evidence. Keep a contemporaneous record of every UK arrival and departure throughout the tax year. Useful evidence: passport stamps where issued, boarding passes (paper or PDF), airline e-ticket confirmations, hotel reservations, credit card and debit card transaction logs from UK locations, Oyster/contactless travel records, eBorders flight data (HMRC has access to this). Spreadsheet tracking with monthly reconciliation is the standard professional approach. A Google Sheets or Excel log with columns for date, arrival/departure, country and notes is enough.

Tax residence certificates. If you need to claim treaty relief in another country (e.g. lower withholding tax on dividends from a US payer), HMRC issues a Tax Residence Certificate confirming you are UK-resident for the relevant period. Apply via the Government Gateway online service or by post (form CISC9). Turnaround is usually 2-4 weeks. Conversely, foreign tax authorities issue equivalent certificates to support UK treaty claims by inbound residents.

SA109 supplementary pages. The Self Assessment return for any year where you are non-resident, dual-resident, claiming split-year treatment, claiming the FIG regime, or claiming under a DTA tie-breaker requires the SA109 "Residence, remittance basis etc" supplementary pages alongside the SA100 main return. SA109 captures: residence status, number of UK days, SRT test passed, ties counted, split-year case claimed, FIG claim, DTA claim, domicile-related entries (now limited to IHT-relevant data from 2025-26). Form and guidance at gov.uk SA109 (retrieved 2026-05-22).

UK rental income for non-residents. The Non-Resident Landlord Scheme (NRLS) requires the tenant (if no agent) or letting agent to withhold 20% basic rate from rent payments to non-resident landlords. Apply via form NRL1 to receive rent gross (subject to ongoing compliance), then declare profits on SA105 + SA109 on the annual return. Personal Allowance is available for qualifying non-residents (EEA, UK citizens). For full practical detail see Self Assessment step by step.

Penalties for getting it wrong. Innocent day-counting errors that lead to under-declared residence-based income attract careless-error penalties of 0-30% of the tax under-declared. Deliberate mis-declaration (claiming non-residence while clearly meeting Automatic UK Test 1, for example) is fraud and attracts penalties of 50-100% of the tax plus possible criminal prosecution. The discovery period for HMRC is 4 years for innocent errors, 6 years for carelessness, 20 years for deliberate behaviour. See HMRC penalties guide for the full penalty regime.

11. DTAs and tie-breakers

The SRT determines UK residence under domestic law. But another country's domestic law can simultaneously classify you as resident there. The standard outcome under raw domestic rules would be that both countries tax your worldwide income - economically double taxation. Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) resolve this with treaty tie-breaker rules.

UK treaty network. The UK has DTAs with approximately 130 countries, covering essentially every jurisdiction a UK-connected individual is likely to encounter. Most follow the OECD Model Tax Convention with country-specific variations. The full list is at gov.uk/government/collections/tax-treaties.

The standard OECD tie-breaker. Applied sequentially - move to the next test only if the previous one does not resolve the question.

Permanent home. You are resident only in the country where you have a permanent home available. A permanent home is a dwelling arranged and retained for the individual's permanent use, not a temporary place of abode. If you have permanent homes in both countries, move to step 2.
Centre of vital interests. You are resident only in the country with which your personal and economic relations are closer. Factors: family location, social ties, occupation, political/cultural activities, place of business, place from which property is administered. If centre of vital interests cannot be determined or is split, move to step 3.
Habitual abode. You are resident in the country where you have an habitual abode (where you actually spend the most time on a regular pattern). If you have an habitual abode in both or neither, move to step 4.
Nationality. You are resident in the country of which you are a national. If you are national of both or neither, move to step 5.
Mutual agreement procedure. The two countries' competent authorities resolve the question by agreement.

The tie-breaker assigns treaty residence to one country only - the other becomes the "non-residence" country for treaty purposes. You then claim relief under the relevant DTA articles for income types: employment, business profits, dividends, interest, royalties, pensions and so on. The UK domestic-law residence status (SRT outcome) is unaffected by the tie-breaker - you remain UK-resident under the SRT and have UK residence-based filing obligations, but treaty relief reduces or eliminates the tax otherwise due.

HMRC International Manual. The detailed HMRC interpretation of residence and treaty issues is in the HMRC International Manual at INTM150000 onwards (retrieved 2026-05-22). Tie-breaker analysis sits at INTM154000. The manual is HMRC's published interpretation and is binding on HMRC's own officers, though not on tribunals.

Claim mechanics. Treaty relief is claimed on the SA100 return with the SA109 supplementary pages. For UK source income paid to a treaty-resident in the other country, the payer may apply reduced withholding at source under Double Taxation Treaty Passport or certificate-of-residence procedures - faster than waiting to reclaim after year-end. For inbound foreign income paid to UK-residents, foreign withholding is creditable against UK tax up to the treaty rate.

The residence test interacts with most of the rest of the UK tax system. Useful next reads:

How UK tax works - the canonical primer covering PAYE, NIC, Self Assessment and the bands the SRT outcome plugs into.
Self Assessment step by step - the filing walkthrough for the SA100 + SA109 that residence cases need.
UK tax glossary A-Z - definitions for every term used in residence and international tax.
UK tax vs EU comparison - how UK rates compare with the major EU jurisdictions, useful context for relocation decisions.
Budget 2024 summary - the Spring Budget that announced non-dom abolition and the FIG regime.
Tax deadlines 2026/27 - registration, filing and payment dates that apply to residence-affected filings.
HMRC penalties guide - the penalty regime that applies if residence is misdeclared.
Methodology and sources - SalaryTax provenance and update cadence.

Primary sources cited on this page (all retrieved 2026-05-22 unless otherwise stated):

gov.uk RDR3 - Statutory Residence Test guidance (the canonical HMRC document).
Finance Act 2013 Schedule 45 (the underlying SRT legislation).
gov.uk - Abolition of the remittance basis of taxation (FIG regime policy paper).
gov.uk/tax-foreign-income (general foreign-income guidance).
gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/non-domiciled-residents (residual non-dom guidance for IHT).
gov.uk - Self Assessment SA109 form and notes.
HMRC International Manual INTM150000 (residence and treaty interpretation).

Frequently asked questions

Am I UK-resident if I work abroad but visit family weekly?: It depends on how the days add up across the tax year and whether you can meet the full-time work abroad test. The Automatic Overseas Test 3 needs sufficient hours worked overseas (35+ hours per week average over the reference period), fewer than 91 UK days, and fewer than 31 UK working days. Weekly family visits that breach either day cap, or any UK working days that push you over 31, usually break the full-time abroad test and push you into the Sufficient Ties Test. With a spouse, child and accommodation in the UK you typically have at least 3 ties as a leaver, which caps your UK days at under 46 before you become resident again.
What counts as a working day in the UK?: HMRC defines a UK workday as a day on which you do more than 3 hours of work while physically present in the UK. Work includes employment duties, self-employed work, training the employer pays for, and travel time that is part of the job (but not normal commuting). A day where you do 2 hours and 45 minutes of laptop work in a London hotel does not count; a day where you do 3 hours 5 minutes does. The 3-hour threshold is the same for the Sufficient Ties work tie (40+ UK workdays) and for the Automatic Overseas full-time-abroad test (under 31 UK workdays).
How does the SRT handle exceptional circumstances?: If you are stranded in the UK by events beyond your control - serious illness, bereavement involving an immediate family member, civil unrest, natural disaster or a national lockdown - HMRC may disregard up to 60 days of UK presence per tax year. The bar is high: the circumstances must be genuinely exceptional, the days must be ones you could not realistically have avoided, and you must leave the UK as soon as the circumstances allow. The cap is 60 days regardless of how long the event lasts, so a 90-day hospital stay still only disregards 60 days. Keep documentary evidence: medical letters, flight cancellation notices, embassy advice.
What is split-year treatment?: Split-year treatment lets you treat one tax year as two parts: a UK-resident portion and an overseas portion, with worldwide income only taxed during the UK portion. It applies in 8 specific cases covering departures (Cases 1, 2, 3) and arrivals (Cases 4 through 8). You must already meet the SRT residence test for the year overall, and satisfy the gating conditions for at least one case. Split-year is automatic if the gates are met - you do not elect into it. Without split-year a year is fully UK-resident or fully non-resident, which can be punitive if you move mid-year with a large bonus or sale on the wrong side of the move date.
Is non-dom status still available?: No. The non-dom remittance basis was abolished from 6 April 2025. It is replaced by the 4-year Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime for new arrivals to the UK who have not been UK tax-resident in any of the previous 10 tax years. The new regime is residence-based rather than domicile-based, gives 100% relief on qualifying foreign income and gains for the first 4 years of UK residence, and ends automatically after the 4th year. Pre-2025 unremitted income falls under transitional rules including the Temporary Repatriation Facility.
What is the FIG regime?: The Foreign Income and Gains regime is the post-April 2025 replacement for the non-dom remittance basis. It exempts qualifying foreign income (employment income for non-UK duties, foreign dividends, interest, rental, pension and similar) and foreign gains from UK tax for the first 4 tax years of UK residence, provided you were not UK-resident in any of the previous 10 tax years. Claim it on the Self Assessment return. You forfeit the Personal Allowance and CGT annual exempt amount for any year you claim FIG. After 4 years, worldwide income becomes UK-taxable in the normal way.
Do I need to file Self Assessment if I am non-resident with UK rental income?: Yes. UK rental income is UK-source income regardless of where the landlord lives, so HMRC taxes it for non-residents through the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme. The tenant or letting agent must withhold 20% basic rate unless you have an approval to receive rent gross under form NRL1 (individuals) or NRL2 (companies). Either way the rental profit goes on the Self Assessment SA100 return with the SA105 property pages, plus the SA109 supplementary pages declaring your non-resident status. You can claim the Personal Allowance as a non-resident if you are an EEA national or a UK citizen.
How long does HMRC accept exceptional circumstances?: The 60-day disregard is a hard annual cap, not a per-event cap. If you are stuck in the UK for 90 days because of a hospital stay, only 60 of those count as exceptional - the other 30 add to your normal day count. Across multiple events in the same year the 60 days are aggregated. Across multiple tax years, each year has its own fresh 60-day allowance. HMRC has historically applied the relief narrowly: dental treatment, missed flights you could have rebooked, and visa delays you could have foreseen do not qualify. Document the circumstances contemporaneously and keep evidence for at least 5 years and 10 months after the relevant 31 January filing deadline.
What is the difference between residence and domicile?: Residence is a year-by-year test of where you physically live based on day-counting under the SRT. Domicile is a long-term, common-law concept of where you have your permanent home and family roots, often inherited at birth from your father. You can be UK-resident but non-UK domiciled, or UK-domiciled but non-UK resident. Pre-April 2025 the distinction mattered because non-doms could claim the remittance basis. Post-April 2025 domicile still matters for inheritance tax (a long-term-resident test based on 10 of the last 20 years of residence replaces deemed-domicile from April 2025) but not for income tax or CGT.
Can I be tax-resident in two countries?: Yes. Domestic residence rules in different countries can both catch you in the same year - for example UK Sufficient Ties Test resident plus French 183-day resident. The UK has Double Taxation Agreements with around 130 countries that contain a tie-breaker clause to allocate primary taxing rights when this happens. The OECD Model tie-breaker tests, applied in order: permanent home, centre of vital interests (economic and personal ties), habitual abode (where you actually live most), and nationality. If none resolves it, the two competent authorities resolve by mutual agreement. The DTA tie-breaker only affects treaty relief; under domestic UK law you remain resident under the SRT.
How do I prove I left the UK on a specific date?: HMRC accepts a combination of evidence: passport stamps where issued, boarding passes, airline e-ticket confirmations, container shipping documents, removal company invoices, new tenancy or employment contracts overseas, foreign tax residency certificates, foreign bank statements showing account activity, utility bills at the new address, and school enrolment records for children. Keep all of it for at least 6 years. Day-counting is the single biggest evidential issue in SRT enquiries - HMRC will reconstruct your movements from the data they hold (PAYE records, eBorders flight data, credit card transactions) and the burden falls on you to rebut.