UK tax residency: how the statutory residence test works
Whether you’re UK tax resident is decided each tax year, 6 April to 5 April, by the statutory residence test. It starts with the days you spend in the UK — a day counts if you’re here at midnight — then looks at your home, your work and your ties to the UK.
What decides UK tax residency
The UK’s tax residency test is the statutory residence test (SRT): it decides whether you’re UK resident for a tax year. It works in three steps, in this order:
- The automatic overseas tests — if you meet any automatic overseas test, you’re not UK resident for that year.
- The automatic UK tests — if you meet none of the overseas tests and any one of these, you are.
- The sufficient ties test — if neither settles it, your UK ties and your days together decide.
The automatic overseas tests
You’re not UK resident for the tax year if any of these applies:
- you spend fewer than 16 days in the UK, and you were UK resident in one or more of the previous 3 tax years;
- you spend fewer than 46 days in the UK, and you weren’t UK resident in any of the previous 3 tax years;
- you work full-time overseas, spending fewer than 91 days in the UK and working in the UK on fewer than 31 days.
The first two are the markers FlySee counts against — see how many days you can spend in the UK.
The automatic UK tests
If none of the overseas tests applies, you are UK resident if any of these does:
- you spend 183 days or more in the UK in the tax year;
- your home is in the UK — the test has its own conditions on how long you have it and the days you spend there;
- you work full-time in the UK.
The sufficient ties test
When no automatic test settles it, your residence depends on how many days you spend in the UK together with how many of these UK ties you have: family, accommodation, work, the 90-day tie and the country tie. HMRC’s guidance sets out which combinations make you resident.
How a day in the UK is counted
- Midnight. You’ve spent a day in the UK if you’re here at the end of the day — at midnight.
- The deeming rule. If you were UK resident in one or more of the previous 3 tax years, have at least 3 UK ties, and are in the UK on more than 30 days without being here at midnight, every such day after the first 30 counts as a day in the UK.
- Transit. A day you arrive as a passenger and leave the next day as a passenger, without doing anything substantially unrelated to the journey, doesn’t count.
- Exceptional circumstances. Some days you’re kept in the UK by events beyond your control may not count; HMRC’s guidance sets out when.
How FlySee counts it
FlySee counts the days you end in the UK — at midnight — in each tax year from 6 April, against the marker you pick: fewer than 16, fewer than 46, or 183 or more. On the 16 marker it also counts the days without a midnight past 30, as the deeming rule does, as if you have the 3 UK ties it needs — a day early, never late. Your home, your work and your ties aren’t counted: whether you’re resident is for you and your adviser.