UK tax until you break residence
Whether you pay UK tax after moving to Croatia comes down to residence, not location. Until you are non-resident under the Statutory Residence Test, HMRC taxes your worldwide income, including anything you earn in Croatia. The cleanest exit is working full-time abroad while keeping UK visits under 91 days and UK workdays to 30 or fewer. If you leave part-way through a tax year, split-year treatment can treat you as non-resident from your departure date. You claim it on the SA109 pages of your Self Assessment return; the P85 simply tells HMRC you have gone if you do not file one.
What the UK still taxes afterwards
Even as a non-resident you keep paying UK tax on UK-source income: rental profits under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, UK government service pensions, and gains on UK property, which must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion. Two traps deserve respect. Return to the UK within five years and the temporary non-residence rules can tax gains and certain income you realised while away. And since 6 April 2025 inheritance tax has been residence-based, so a long-term UK resident can remain in scope on worldwide assets for up to 10 years after leaving.
What Croatia charges instead
Croatia taxes annual income in two brackets split at EUR 60,000, with each municipality setting its rates within national ranges: broadly 15% to 23% on the lower bracket and 25% to 33% on the higher, with 20% and 30% as the defaults. Dividends, interest, financial-asset gains and rental income are taxed at flat 12% rates. Holders of Croatia's digital nomad residence permit, extended to 18 months by changes that took effect on 15 March 2025, pay no Croatian income tax on income earned remotely for a non-Croatian employer or their own foreign company. The UK-Croatia double taxation agreement, in force since November 2015, stops the two systems taxing the same income twice. For the full picture, read our guide to UK tax when moving to Croatia.