The 4-Year FIG Regime: UK Tax for New Arrivals and Returning Expats

The 4-year FIG regime is a relief that exempts your qualifying foreign income and gains from UK tax for your first four years of UK residence. It applies to foreign income and gains arising from 6 April 2025, the date it replaced the non-dom remittance basis. If you claim, your qualifying overseas income and capital gains for the year are not taxed in the UK, and there is no extra charge for bringing that money into the country.

The crucial difference is that the FIG regime has no remittance trap. Under the old remittance basis, foreign income and gains stayed out of UK tax only while the money remained outside the UK; the moment you remitted it (brought it in or used it here) it became taxable, often years later. The new regime removes that trap entirely, alongside several other changes.

• No remittance charge: you can transfer and spend your qualifying foreign income and gains in the UK with no UK tax consequence during the four years.
• No domicile test: eligibility turns on your UK residence history, not on where you are domiciled, so returning UK nationals can qualify.
• No annual remittance basis charge: the old GBP 30,000 / GBP 60,000 charges for longer-term residents are gone.
• A hard four-year limit: relief is time-boxed from arrival, whereas the remittance basis could be claimed for many years (subject to the charge).

You qualify if you have been non-UK resident for the 10 tax years immediately before the tax year in which you become UK resident. This is a residence test, judged under the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) for each of those years, not a domicile test.

Because it is residence-based, a UK national who left the UK, spent at least 10 years abroad and then returns can qualify just as a first-time arrival would. Two further conditions apply: you cannot claim for a year in which you are a member of the House of Commons or the House of Lords, and you must be aged 10 or over at the start of the tax year.

The regime shelters qualifying foreign income and foreign gains only, and a FIG claim relieves them from UK tax for the year. Anything with a UK source stays taxable in the normal way, even while you are claiming. Foreign employment income sits outside the FIG foreign income claim and is relieved separately under Overseas Workday Relief. The table below shows how the main income types are treated.

On the UK side, this means UK employment income, UK self-employment, UK dividends and interest, UK rental income (SA105) and gains on UK assets (including UK residential property) all remain taxable while you claim. On the foreign-employment side, earnings from a UK employment relating to overseas duties are relieved through Overseas Workday Relief (OWR), a separate election capped at the lower of GBP 300,000 and 30% of the relevant employment income, so foreign-duties pay needs its own analysis.

You claim the FIG regime each year on the SA109 residence pages, which form part of your Self Assessment return (SA100). The claim is not automatic and must be made every year you want it, so you decide year by year whether claiming is worthwhile.

You report your foreign income and gains in the normal way (for example the SA106 foreign pages and the capital gains pages) and then make the FIG claim on the SA109 to obtain the relief. Because the claim is annual and optional, the right answer can change between years as your income mix shifts.

Claiming the FIG regime for a year costs you your Personal Allowance (GBP 12,570) and your Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for that same year. That trade-off is the heart of the decision: the relief is only worth claiming when the tax saved on your sheltered foreign income and gains comfortably exceeds the value of the allowances you give up.

For someone with large foreign income, surrendering the allowances is trivial against the tax saved. For someone with only a small amount of foreign income, the lost Personal Allowance alone can turn a claim into a net loss. This is why we model the position both ways before filing.

Whether a FIG claim pays turns on the size of your foreign income against the allowances you forfeit. The following is illustrative only, using the GBP 12,570 Personal Allowance and standard 20% / 40% / 45% income tax rates to show the mechanics. Real cases need a full calculation.

Case A, large foreign income. Priya returns to the UK after 12 years abroad with GBP 200,000 of foreign dividends and no UK income. If she claims the FIG regime, that GBP 200,000 is exempt and her UK tax on it is nil. She gives up her GBP 12,570 Personal Allowance, but since the foreign income is exempt anyway, the lost allowance saves her nothing she would otherwise have used. Tax with the claim: nil on the foreign income. Tax without the claim: tens of thousands of pounds at 40% and above. Claiming clearly pays.

Case B, tiny foreign income. Tom returns after 11 years abroad with GBP 3,000 of foreign interest and GBP 60,000 of UK salary. Without claiming, his GBP 3,000 foreign interest is taxed and he keeps his full Personal Allowance against his UK salary. If he claims the FIG regime, he exempts GBP 3,000 of foreign interest, saving at most GBP 1,200 (GBP 3,000 at 40%), but he loses his GBP 12,570 Personal Allowance, worth roughly GBP 5,028 against his UK salary (GBP 12,570 at 40%). Claiming would cost him far more than it saves, so he should not claim that year. He can still claim in a later year if his foreign income grows.

The four-year window runs for four consecutive tax years from the first year you become UK resident after the 10-year absence. It is fixed: it does not pause, roll over or extend, and any year you do not use is lost. Even if you leave and return within the window, the clock keeps running on the original timeline.

A transitional rule helps people who were already partway through their first years of UK residence when the regime began. If you became UK resident before 6 April 2025 and met the conditions, you can claim the regime from 2025/26 onwards for whatever years remain within your original four-year window. A short timeline illustrates this:

• Arrived 2025/26 or later: full four years available (for example 2025/26, 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29).
• Arrived 2024/25 (one year before the regime): the regime applies from 2025/26 for the remaining years of the original window, not a fresh four years.
• Arrived three or more years before 6 April 2025: little or none of the window may remain, because the four-year clock started on first arrival.

The FIG regime sits on top of the Statutory Residence Test (SRT). The SRT decides whether you are UK resident for a tax year and whether your 10 prior years were genuinely non-resident; the FIG regime then decides how your foreign income and gains are taxed once you are resident. Getting the SRT analysis right is the foundation of any FIG claim.

In the tax year you arrive, split-year treatment may apply under the SRT, dividing the year into a non-UK part and a UK part. The FIG regime interacts with this, so the year of arrival often needs the most careful handling. We recommend modelling residence with an SRT calculation before deciding how to file.

Two related areas often come up alongside a FIG claim: pre-2025 foreign money and the new residence-based Inheritance Tax rules. First, the Temporary Repatriation Facility (TRF) is a separate, time-limited window that lets former remittance-basis users bring pre-6-April-2025 foreign income and gains (old money) to the UK at a reduced tax rate; the FIG regime only covers income and gains arising from 6 April 2025, so older funds are dealt with under the TRF instead.

Second, Inheritance Tax (IHT) moved to a residence-based system from 6 April 2025, so how long you have been UK resident now drives your worldwide IHT exposure rather than domicile. New arrivals should review their IHT position alongside any FIG planning. See our dedicated guides on both topics.