Moving to the UK

What is the FIG regime?

Answered by Jordan Onraet-Wells, Founder & Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). Published 17 July 2026. Last reviewed 17 July 2026.

The short answer

The FIG regime is the UK's foreign income and gains regime: it exempts qualifying foreign income and gains from UK tax for your first 4 years of UK residence, provided you were non-UK resident for the 10 tax years immediately beforehand. It started on 6 April 2025 and replaced the non-dom remittance basis, so the relieved money can be brought to and spent in the UK freely. You claim it each year on the SA109 pages of your Self Assessment return, at the cost of your Personal Allowance and Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for that year.

Gives full UK tax relief on qualifying foreign income and gains for up to 4 consecutive tax years, covering income and gains arising from 6 April 2025 onwards.
Requires 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence immediately before you become UK resident; it is residence-based, not domicile-based, so returning British expats can qualify.
There is no remittance trap: relieved foreign money can be brought into the UK with no UK tax charge.
UK-source income and gains, such as UK salary, UK rents and gains on UK property, remain taxable as normal.
Claiming costs you the £12,570 Personal Allowance and £3,000 Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for that year, so a claim can cost more than it saves if your foreign income is small.
The claim is annual and not automatic; foreign employment income sits outside the FIG claim and is relieved separately through Overseas Workday Relief.

How the FIG regime works

You qualify if you become UK tax resident after at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence, judged year by year under the Statutory Residence Test. The relief then runs for a maximum of 4 consecutive tax years from your first year of residence: the window is fixed, it does not pause or extend, and unused years are lost. The claim is made each year on the SA109 residence pages of your Self Assessment return (box 28 for foreign income, box 29 for foreign gains), with the relieved amounts reported source by source on the supplementary pages (SA106 for foreign investment income, SA108 for gains).

The common trap: what a claim costs you

Claiming for a year forfeits your £12,570 Personal Allowance and your £3,000 Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount in full, even if you claim on income only or gains only. If your foreign income is small, the tax saved can be far less than the value of the allowances given up, so claiming can leave you worse off. Because the claim is annual and optional, the right answer can change from year to year. Foreign employment income is not covered by the FIG claim itself; it is relieved separately through an Overseas Workday Relief election.

What to do before claiming

First confirm eligibility: a single year of accidental UK residence in the 10-year lookback breaks the test, so check each prior year under the Statutory Residence Test. Then model the numbers both ways before filing, weighing the tax saved on your sheltered foreign income and gains against the allowances you give up. Our full guide to the 4-year FIG regime covers the transitional rule for people who arrived before 6 April 2025 and worked examples of when a claim pays.

Go deeper

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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