Leaving the UK: Breaking Tax Residence

The Statutory Residence Test (SRT) applies in a fixed order: the automatic overseas tests, then the automatic UK tests, then the sufficient ties test. If you meet an automatic overseas test, you are non-resident for that tax year and the later tests do not apply.

• You were UK resident in one or more of the previous three tax years and spend fewer than 16 days in the UK in the current tax year.
• You were not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years and spend fewer than 46 days in the UK in the current tax year.
• You work full-time overseas across the tax year, with no significant breaks, and spend limited days in the UK and working in the UK.

If no automatic test settles the position, the sufficient ties test compares the number of days you spend in the UK with the number of UK ties you retain: a family tie, accommodation tie, work tie, 90-day tie and—for recent leavers—a country tie. The more ties you keep, the fewer UK days you can spend before becoming resident.

Where you leave the UK part-way through a tax year, split year treatment may divide the year into a UK part and an overseas part, so that foreign income earned after departure is not taxed as though you were resident throughout. Split year treatment applies only in defined cases, such as starting full-time work overseas or ceasing to have a UK home.

• UK rental income remains taxable in the UK, and non-resident landlord rules may apply to your letting agent or tenant.
• UK employment income relating to UK workdays generally remains taxable in the UK.
• Gains on UK land and property remain within scope of UK Capital Gains Tax for non-residents, with reporting deadlines that are much shorter than the Self Assessment cycle.
• Temporary non-residence rules can pull certain income and gains back into charge if you return to the UK within five years.
• Domicile and inheritance tax exposure follow their own rules and are not resolved by becoming non-resident.