Non-Doms & Inbound

Do I need an accountant for the FIG regime?

Answered by Jordan Onraet-Wells, Founder & Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). Published 8 August 2026. Last reviewed 8 August 2026.

The short answer

There is no legal requirement to use an accountant, but for most people with meaningful foreign income the FIG regime is not a DIY return. The claim is made on the SA109 pages, which HMRC's own free online filing service cannot submit, so you need commercial software, a paper return or an agent just to get it in. The claim must then quantify every relieved amount source by source, and each claim year costs you the £12,570 personal allowance and the £3,000 CGT annual exempt amount, so someone has to run the numbers on whether claiming is worth it at all. Get any of that wrong and you have an inaccurate return, not a smaller tax bill.

The FIG claim goes on the SA109 residence pages, which HMRC's free online filing service cannot submit: your routes are commercial software, an agent or a paper return due by 31 October.
HS266 requires every relieved amount to be identified source by source on the supplementary pages: a bare tick in box 28 or 29 with nothing quantified is not a valid claim.
Claiming is a yearly cost-benefit decision because each claim year forfeits the £12,570 personal allowance and the £3,000 CGT annual exempt amount.
Foreign employment income sits outside the ordinary foreign income claim and needs a separate Overseas Workday Relief election, which is easy to miss on a self-prepared return.
The first FIG filing season is live now: 2025/26 returns are due by 31 January 2027, and the decisions in that first return frame the remaining years of your four-year window.

Why this return defeats the DIY route

The practical barrier comes first: relief under the foreign income and gains (FIG) regime is claimed on the SA109 pages, and HMRC's free online service does not support them. That alone pushes most claimants to commercial software or an agent, or back to a paper deadline of 31 October. The technical barrier is bigger. HMRC's helpsheet HS266 is explicit that ticking box 28 for foreign income or box 29 for foreign gains is only the start: every amount you want relieved must be identified source by source on the right supplementary pages for that type of income. Dividends, interest, foreign rental profits and gains each land in different places, and a claim that is not quantified is not a valid claim. Our SA109 walkthrough shows what a complete claim looks like.

The decision an accountant actually adds value on

Filing mechanics aside, the real judgement call is whether to claim at all. Each claim year costs you the £12,570 personal allowance and the £3,000 CGT annual exempt amount, so a small foreign income claim can genuinely leave you worse off, while a large one can save serious tax. That arithmetic has to be redone every year of your four-year window, and it interacts with other choices: foreign employment earnings are not covered by the ordinary foreign income claim and need a separate Overseas Workday Relief election, which HMRC's guidance caps at the lower of 30% of qualifying employment income or £300,000 a year. The common FIG mistakes and what goes wrong and what it costs guides cover the failure modes we see.

How Horizon handles FIG returns

FIG returns are exactly the returns we specialise in. Horizon UK Tax Solutions is founder-led by a Chartered Tax Adviser with over 10 years experience, including 7 at a Big Four firm, and we prepare the whole package: the claim-or-not arithmetic, the SA109, the quantified supplementary pages and the software filing HMRC's free service cannot do. Personal tax returns start from £350 and complex returns from £750, always as a fixed fee agreed upfront. With 2025/26 returns due by 31 January 2027, this is the first FIG filing season: book a free 30-minute clarity call or see our non-dom and residency service.

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Sources and further reading

This is general information for the 2026/27 UK tax year, not personal tax advice; speak to a Chartered Tax Adviser about your own position.

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