UK tax residency advice: the Statutory Residence Test explained for families

You are UK resident for a tax year if you meet an automatic UK test, or fail the automatic overseas tests and meet the sufficient ties test. If you meet an automatic overseas test, you are non-resident. The tests are applied in a set order and each tax year, 6 April to 5 April, is judged on its own. Our residency checker walks you through them, and we can confirm the result.

The Statutory Residence Test (SRT) is the set of rules in UK law that decides whether you are resident for tax in a given year. It has automatic overseas tests, automatic UK tests and a sufficient ties test that looks at days in the UK against your connections here. It replaced the old, uncertain case law in 2013 and is the only test HMRC applies.

There is no single number. Under the automatic overseas tests, fewer than 16 days is safe if you were UK resident in any of the previous three tax years, and fewer than 46 days if you were not. Above that, the sufficient ties test sets a lower day limit the more UK ties you have, and 183 days or more makes you resident. Your ties matter as much as the days.

There are up to five. A family tie means a UK-resident partner or a child under 18 with whom you spend over 60 days in the UK. An accommodation tie is a UK place available to you for 91 continuous days or more, which you use for at least a night. A work tie is 40 or more days of over three hours' work in the UK. The 90-day tie looks at the past two years. A country tie applies only to leavers.

Generally a day counts if you are in the UK at midnight at the end of it. There are special rules, including a deeming rule that can count extra days where you have enough UK ties, and a limited allowance for exceptional circumstances outside your control. Careful records of every arrival and departure are essential, because the count can decide your residence.

Split-year treatment divides the tax year in which you arrive in or leave the UK into a UK part and an overseas part. In the overseas part, most foreign income and gains are outside the UK tax net. It applies only if you meet one of eight statutory cases and you are otherwise UK resident for that year. You cannot simply choose it, and you show it on your tax return.

Three cases cover leaving. Case 1 is starting full-time work overseas. Case 2 is the partner of someone who qualifies under Case 1. Case 3 is ceasing to have any UK home, with fewer than 16 UK days afterwards. Each has detailed conditions about days and homes, so we map your facts against them and the timing of your departure.

Five cases cover arrival. Case 4 is starting to have a home in the UK only. Case 5 is starting full-time work in the UK. Cases 6 and 7 cover ceasing full-time work overseas, and the partner of someone who does. Case 8 is starting to have a UK home. Where more than one fits, the one with the earliest split date normally takes priority. You will need evidence of when each event happened.

Not entirely. A non-resident is still taxed on UK-source income such as rent from UK property, and on gains from UK land and property. Gains on assets you owned before leaving can come back into tax if you return within five years, provided you were resident for at least four of the seven years before you left. Some UK pension and employment income also stays taxable.

Yes. Each country applies its own rules, so you can be resident in both. A double tax treaty usually contains a tie-breaker that gives taxing priority to one country, using tests such as where you have a permanent home and your centre of vital interests. Treaties do not override the Statutory Residence Test, but they can limit double taxation. Taking a treaty position is a formal step with consequences.

Not for income tax and capital gains tax. The old remittance basis for non-doms was replaced from 6 April 2025 with a four-year foreign income and gains regime, based on residence. For inheritance tax, what matters now is whether you are a long-term UK resident, broadly 10 of the last 20 tax years, rather than domicile. We cover this in our international pages.

Since 6 April 2025, inheritance tax on non-UK assets turns on whether you are a long-term UK resident, broadly UK resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years. After leaving, the UK can keep taxing worldwide assets for a tail of between 3 and 10 years, depending on how long you were resident. So leaving the UK does not end inheritance tax exposure overnight.

You should report your change of residence and claim split-year treatment on your Self Assessment return for the year of departure, using the residence pages. Many people also write to HMRC to update their records and tax code. There is no special exit form, but a return that gets residence wrong can lead to enquiries and penalties, so the return needs care.

Keep a daily diary of where you were at midnight, plus passport stamps, boarding passes, bank and card statements, work calendars, tenancy or ownership documents and utility bills. HMRC can ask for evidence years later, and the burden of showing you were non-resident sits with you. A simple spreadsheet maintained through the year is far better than reconstructing it afterwards.

It is harder, though not impossible. A UK-resident partner or young child creates a family tie, which lowers the number of UK days you can spend before becoming resident. If you also keep a home here and work here for some days, you may fail the sufficient ties test. Working full-time abroad can still satisfy an automatic overseas test, so the details decide.

You could underpay income tax or capital gains tax, or claim a treaty position or split year you do not qualify for. HMRC can open an enquiry, charge interest, and add penalties based on whether the error was careless or deliberate. If you suspect an earlier return was wrong, correcting it voluntarily usually leads to lower penalties than waiting to be found.

This page explains how residence works for people already here, or whose family sits in the UK. Our International Tax pages cover the full move: arrival planning, the four-year regime, exit planning, the tax treatment of assets and a country-by-country view. If you are in the middle of a move, we normally use both and plan the whole transition.