When do you become UK tax resident after moving here?
You become UK tax resident from the point your circumstances meet the Statutory Residence Test (SRT), which is the single legal test that decides residence for each tax year running from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. The SRT looks at days spent in the UK and the connections (ties) you have here, and the answer is set per tax year rather than per calendar year.
The SRT works in three stages. First, the automatic overseas tests can make you non-resident (for example, spending fewer than 16 days in the UK, or working full-time abroad with limited UK days). Second, the automatic UK tests can make you resident (for example, spending 183 or more days in the UK in the tax year, having your only home in the UK, or working full-time in the UK). Third, if neither set of automatic tests is decisive, the sufficient ties test compares your UK days against your ties (family, accommodation, work, and 90-day and country ties) to settle the question.
For most people moving to the UK in 2026/27, residence is straightforward: if you arrive and base yourself here for the rest of the year, you will usually meet an automatic UK test or have enough ties to be resident for the whole 2026/27 tax year. The important point is that being resident for the year does not necessarily mean the whole year is taxed, which is where split-year treatment (RDR3, GOV.UK) comes in.
Because the day-counting and ties rules interact in ways that are easy to misjudge, it is worth modelling your year before you travel. Our SRT calculator and relocation tool let you test arrival dates and day counts before they are fixed.
Split-year treatment for arrivers (taxed only from arrival)
Split-year treatment lets you be taxed as a UK resident only from your arrival date, so foreign income and gains arising before you moved generally stay outside UK tax for the 2026/27 year. The tax year is split into an overseas part (before arrival, taxed as if non-resident) and a UK part (from arrival, taxed as resident), even though for SRT purposes you are technically resident for the whole year.
Split-year treatment is not optional and you do not apply for it: it applies automatically if you meet the conditions of one of the arriver cases. There are five arriver cases, Case 4 to Case 8, each with its own conditions and its own rule for the date the year splits. Case 4 covers starting to have a home in the UK only, Case 5 covers starting full-time work in the UK, Case 6 covers ceasing full-time work overseas and returning, Case 7 covers the partner of someone in Case 6, and Case 8 covers starting to have a home in the UK. If more than one case applies, a statutory priority order decides which case (and therefore which split date) governs.
A worked example to illustrate (hypothetical figures): suppose you move to the UK on 1 September 2026 to start a new job and previously had no UK home. If you meet Case 5, the year splits on roughly that date. Salary you earned abroad before 1 September 2026, and a gain on selling an overseas asset in July 2026, generally fall in the overseas part and are outside UK tax. Income and gains from 1 September 2026 onward fall in the UK part and are within scope. The same person without split-year treatment could face UK tax on the whole year.
The cases are technical and the split date can shift your tax bill materially, so confirming the right case and date early is one of the highest-value steps an adviser can take for a new arriver.
The Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime (now in its second year)
The FIG regime lets qualifying new UK residents claim relief from UK tax on foreign income and foreign gains for up to four tax years, and it is now in its second year for 2026/27 having replaced the old non-domicile remittance basis (HS264, GOV.UK) on 6 April 2025. If you arrived and became resident in 2025/26, your four-year window covers 2025/26, 2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29. If you become resident in 2026/27, your window runs from 2026/27.
Unlike the old remittance basis, the FIG regime (GOV.UK guidance) is not about where you keep the money. If you make a valid claim, your qualifying foreign income and gains are simply not taxed in the UK, and you can bring that money into the UK freely with no further UK charge on it. This removes one of the biggest traps of the old system, where remitting offshore funds triggered tax.
How FIG works and who qualifies (the four-year window)
You qualify for the FIG regime if 2026/27 is one of your first four tax years of UK residence following a period of at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence. The 10-year clean break is the key gateway: both newcomers and returning British expats can qualify, provided they were genuinely non-resident for that whole decade. Members of the House of Commons or House of Lords are excluded.
Three practical points matter. First, the relief is not automatic: you must claim it on your Self Assessment return for each year you want it, year by year. You can claim in one year and not another within your window, but unused years cannot be saved or carried forward. Second, claiming FIG relief for a year means you give up your £12,570 personal allowance and your £3,000 capital gains tax annual exempt amount for that same year. Third, UK-source income and gains are always taxable in the normal way, regardless of any FIG claim.
Because you surrender allowances when you claim, FIG is only worthwhile when the foreign income or gains being sheltered comfortably outweigh the value of the allowances lost. For someone with modest foreign income in a given year, claiming can actually cost more. A worked illustration (hypothetical): if in 2026/27 you have £60,000 of foreign investment income, claiming FIG removes that from UK tax and is clearly worth losing the £12,570 personal allowance; but if you have only £2,000 of foreign interest, claiming would waste your allowances for no real benefit. Running the numbers each year is essential, and it is exactly the kind of decision our fixed-fee cross-border reviews are built around.
Your worldwide income and gains once the relief ends
Once your FIG window closes (or in any year you choose not to claim), you are taxed as a normal UK resident on your worldwide income and gains, wherever they arise. From that point your overseas salary, foreign rental profits, offshore investment income and gains on foreign assets all enter your UK return alongside your UK income.
The 2026/27 rates that will then apply to you are: a personal allowance of £12,570, basic rate of 20% on the next £37,700 of taxable income, 40% from there up to £125,140, and 45% above £125,140 (these thresholds are frozen). Dividends have a separate £500 dividend allowance and are taxed at 10.75% (ordinary rate), 35.75% (upper rate) and 39.35% (additional rate). Capital gains have a £3,000 annual exempt amount, with residential property gains taxed at 18% for basic rate taxpayers and 24% for higher and additional rate taxpayers, and most other gains at 18% and 24% as well.
Planning ahead of the cliff edge matters. The transition from a FIG year to a fully taxable year can be a good moment to consider the timing of foreign disposals, dividend payments from your own company, and pension contributions. The key is that nothing about being taxed worldwide is automatic in its impact: the order and timing of events in your final relieved year and your first fully taxable year can change the result significantly.
| Item | 2026/27 figure |
|---|---|
| Personal allowance | £12,570 |
| Basic rate | 20% on the next £37,700 of taxable income |
| Higher rate | 40% up to £125,140 |
| Additional rate | 45% above £125,140 |
| Dividend allowance | £500 |
| Dividend tax rates | 10.75% ordinary, 35.75% upper, 39.35% additional |
| CGT annual exempt amount | £3,000 |
| CGT on residential property gains | 18% basic rate, 24% higher and additional rate |
| CGT on most other gains | 18% and 24% |
Bringing money and assets into the UK
Under the FIG regime, bringing money into the UK is generally not a taxable event, which is a major simplification compared with the old remittance basis. If foreign income or gains have been relieved under a valid FIG claim, or arose in a year before you became UK resident, you can transfer those funds to the UK without triggering a UK charge on them.
That said, two things still need care. First, transferring existing capital into the UK is not income, but the act of moving assets can have other consequences: for example, buying UK residential property brings Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) into play. For 2026/27 the standard SDLT bands in England and Northern Ireland are 0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5m and 12% above that. First-time buyers pay 0% to £300,000 and 5% to £500,000 with no relief above £500,000. A higher-rates surcharge of 5% applies to additional dwellings, and a further 2% surcharge applies to non-UK resident buyers, so the date you become UK resident can affect what you pay on a purchase.
Second, if you do not (or cannot) claim FIG for a year, foreign income and gains arising in that year are taxable as they arise, whether or not you bring the money to the UK. Keeping clean records of which funds relate to which tax year, and which were relieved, protects you if HMRC ever asks how money arriving in the UK should be treated.
Double taxation relief on income taxed before you arrived
If income or a gain is taxed both abroad and in the UK, double taxation relief usually prevents you paying tax twice, normally by giving you a credit in the UK for the overseas tax paid. This matters most in the year you move, when the same income stream may straddle two countries' tax systems.
Relief comes through one of two routes. Where the UK has a double tax treaty (GOV.UK treaty list) with the other country (it has treaties with most major countries), the treaty allocates taxing rights and you claim relief under it, often as a foreign tax credit (GOV.UK). Where there is no treaty, unilateral relief in UK law generally still allows a credit for foreign tax. Either way, the credit is normally limited to the amount of UK tax due on that same income, so you do not get a refund of excess foreign tax from HMRC.
For US citizens and green card holders moving to the UK, this is especially important because the United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. The UK/US treaty and the foreign tax credit rules on both sides coordinate the two systems, but the interaction is intricate and the order in which each country taxes a given item is not always intuitive. Our US/UK guide covers this in more depth, and our cross-border reviews handle the coordination on a fixed fee.
Registering for Self Assessment as a new arriver
You normally need to register for Self Assessment by 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you first have UK tax to report. So if you become liable in 2026/27, the registration deadline is 5 October 2027, and the return for 2026/27 is then filed online by 31 January 2028 with any tax due paid by the same date.
Most new arrivers will need a return because they have foreign income or gains to report, want to claim split-year treatment, or want to make a FIG claim (which can only be made through Self Assessment). When you register, HMRC issues a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR); you will also need a National Insurance number for most UK work. If you are employed, your employer operates PAYE on your UK salary, but a return is still usually needed to report anything PAYE does not capture and to make residence and FIG claims.
The first return is the one that sets the tone, because it is where your residence position, split-year date and any FIG claim are formally recorded. Mistakes here, such as omitting a split-year claim or claiming FIG when it costs more than it saves, are common and are the reason many arrivers ask a specialist to prepare year one even if they handle later years themselves.
National Insurance and social security agreements
When you start working in the UK you generally pay UK National Insurance, but a social security agreement may let you stay in your home country's system for a defined period instead, so check before you assume UK contributions are due. Employees pay Class 1 through payroll and the self-employed pay Class 4 (with Class 2 mechanics) through Self Assessment.
Social security coordination decides which country's system you contribute to so that you are not paying into two at once. The UK has the EU/EEA and Swiss coordination rules and a network of bilateral social security agreements with countries such as the US, Canada and others. If you arrive with an A1 certificate or a certificate of coverage from your home authority, you may remain in your home system for a set period rather than paying UK NIC, which can be valuable in your first years here.
Returning British expats should note a recent change. From 6 April 2026, you can no longer pay voluntary Class 2 National Insurance for periods spent abroad; Class 3 is now the main voluntary route, at £18.40 a week for 2026/27. Existing voluntary Class 2 payers abroad have a transitional window to apply to continue on the cheaper basis before 6 April 2027 (HMRC is contacting affected customers from July 2026), so if you have been topping up from overseas, review your position now to protect your UK State Pension record.
Returning UK expats: what to watch for
Returning British expats face the same arriver rules as anyone else, but two issues need particular attention: whether you qualify for the FIG regime, and the temporary non-residence anti-avoidance rules. Returning home does not automatically reset your tax position to where it was before you left.
On FIG, the gateway is the 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence before your return. Many expats assume their British nationality or past UK life disqualifies them, but it does not: if you have genuinely been non-resident for at least 10 tax years, you can be a qualifying new resident and claim the four-year relief just like a first-time arriver. If you have been away for less than 10 years, you cannot use FIG and are taxed worldwide from the start of UK residence (subject to split-year treatment in the year of return).
The bigger trap is temporary non-residence. If you were UK resident, left for a relatively short period (broadly five years or fewer) and return, certain income and gains you realised while abroad, such as large dividends from your own company or gains on assets you held before leaving, can be pulled back into UK tax in the year you return. This catches people who leave, crystallise a big gain or dividend offshore, then come back too soon. If you are an expat planning to return, model the timing carefully; this is one of the most common and costly surprises we see, and our relocation tool and fixed-fee reviews are designed to flag it before you move.
