When do you become UK tax resident after moving here?
You become UK tax resident under the Statutory Residence Test (SRT), which looks at the number of days you spend in the UK in a tax year and your connections to the country. The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, and your residence status is decided for the whole tax year, even though split-year treatment (covered below) can limit the part of the year you are actually taxed as a resident.
The clearest way to become resident is the first automatic UK test: if you spend 183 days or more in the UK in a tax year, you are UK resident for that year. You can also be caught by other automatic UK tests, such as having your only home in the UK or working full-time in the UK. Conversely, the automatic overseas tests can confirm you are non-resident, for example if you spend fewer than 16 days here in a year when you were UK resident in one of the previous three tax years, or fewer than 46 days in a year when you were not UK resident in any of those three years.
If none of the automatic tests settle the question, the sufficient ties test applies. The more ties you have to the UK, the fewer days you can spend before becoming resident. As a new arriver who was not UK resident in any of the prior three tax years, you have four possible ties (family in the UK, available UK accommodation, UK work of 40 or more days, and 90 or more UK days in either of the two previous tax years). On that arriver basis the position is broadly: with 46 to 90 days you become resident only if you have all four ties; with 91 to 120 days you become resident with three or more ties; and with more than 120 days you become resident with two or more ties. In other words, as an arriver you cannot be made resident by ties alone with fewer than two ties.
Counting days and ties precisely is where mistakes happen, because a single extra trip can flip your status for an entire tax year. Our SRT calculator helps you sketch the position, and for a binding answer we work through the test with you line by line.
Split-year treatment for arrivers (taxed only from your arrival)
Split-year treatment means that, although you are technically UK resident for the whole tax year, you are generally taxed as a resident only from your arrival date, and as a non-resident for the overseas part before it. This is what spares most new arrivers from UK tax on the foreign income and gains they had before they ever set foot here as a resident, and it is one of the most valuable features of arriving in the UK part-way through a tax year.
Split-year treatment is not optional and you do not elect for it: it applies automatically when you meet one of the qualifying cases. For people arriving in the UK, the relevant cases are Cases 4 to 8. In outline, Case 4 covers starting to have your only home in the UK; Case 5 covers starting full-time work in the UK; Case 6 covers ceasing full-time work overseas and returning to the UK; Case 7 covers being the partner of someone who qualifies under Case 5 or Case 6; and Case 8 covers starting to have a home in the UK. You must be UK resident for the tax year for any case to apply, and the split applies for that one tax year of arrival.
It is important to understand what split-year treatment does and does not do. It changes the timing of when income tax and Capital Gains Tax bite within the year of arrival; it does not change your underlying residence status, and it does not override the terms of a double taxation treaty. You record it on the residence pages of your Self Assessment return (form SA109, retitled for 2025/26 as the residence and Foreign Income and Gains regime pages) by stating the case and your arrival date. Getting the right case, and the exact date the overseas part ends, is fiddly, so it is worth confirming the analysis before you file.
The new Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime from April 2025
The Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime is a four-year relief, in force from 6 April 2025, that lets qualifying new residents avoid UK tax on most of their foreign income and gains during their first four years of UK residence. It is the headline opportunity for anyone planning their move now, and it replaced the old non-dom system entirely.
How FIG replaced the non-dom remittance basis
The FIG regime replaced the non-dom remittance basis, which was abolished on 6 April 2025. The old system taxed long-term UK residents who were non-domiciled only on foreign income and gains they brought (remitted) into the UK, often for a fee. That framework, and the concept of domicile as the connecting factor for these income and gains rules, has gone. The UK now decides this purely on tax residence.
The practical difference is significant. Under the old remittance basis you could keep foreign income offshore indefinitely and avoid UK tax on it for many years. Under FIG the relief is generous but time-limited to four years, after which worldwide taxation applies. If you held money offshore under the previous rules, a separate transitional measure, the Temporary Repatriation Facility, can let you bring historic foreign income and gains to the UK at a reduced rate during 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28, and that is worth specific advice.
Who qualifies and the four-year window
You qualify for the FIG regime if you are UK tax resident and it is one of your first four years of UK residence following at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence. The 10-year clean break is strict: if you were UK resident in any of the prior 10 tax years, you do not qualify, which is the key point for first-year planning and for returning expats.
The window runs for four consecutive tax years from the year your UK residence begins. Unused years cannot be carried forward, and if you leave the UK partway through and become non-resident again, you cannot claim for the years you are away, although you may pick up any remaining qualifying years if you return within the window. Transitional rules let people whose four-year period began before 6 April 2025 claim from 2025/26 up to and including the last year of their four-year period.
Two limits matter. First, foreign employment earnings are not covered by the relief, so income from work done while UK resident is taxable in the normal way (a separate Overseas Workday Relief may apply to some foreign workdays, but it is distinct from FIG). Second, claiming FIG for a year means giving up your income tax personal allowance and your Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for that year, along with the marriage allowance and blind person's allowance. You make the claim, year by year, on your Self Assessment return, so it is a yearly decision: in a year with little foreign income it can cost more in lost allowances than it saves. We model this for clients before each filing as part of a fixed-fee review.
Your worldwide income and gains once the relief ends
Once your four-year FIG window closes (or in any year you do not claim it), you are taxed in the UK on your worldwide income and gains as they arise, wherever in the world they come from. That includes foreign rental income, overseas dividends and interest, foreign pensions, and gains on assets sold anywhere, all reported through UK Self Assessment and taxed at UK rates.
For 2025/26 the headline figures are: a personal allowance of £12,570 (tapered away once income exceeds £100,000 and gone entirely at £125,140), then the basic rate of 20% on the next slice of income up to £50,270, the higher rate of 40% on income up to £125,140, and the additional rate of 45% above that. Foreign income and gains feed into these same bands. This is why the run-up to the end of the four-year window is a planning moment: it can make sense to realise certain gains or restructure income sources while the relief still shelters them, rather than after worldwide taxation begins. Any such steps should be checked against the rules on temporary non-residence and the relevant double taxation treaty before you act.
Bringing money and assets into the UK
You can bring money and assets into the UK freely, and under the FIG regime there is no UK tax charge simply for remitting foreign income or gains on which you have validly claimed relief. This is a genuine simplification compared with the old remittance basis, where bringing offshore funds onshore was the very event that triggered tax.
That said, three things still deserve care. First, capital you owned before you became UK resident (your clean capital) is not income or gains and can usually be brought in without UK tax, but you need clear records to prove what it is, ideally a snapshot of your accounts dated just before arrival. Second, mixing pre-arrival capital with later income in the same account makes it much harder to identify what is what, so keeping separate accounts from the start is wise. Third, if you were previously a remittance-basis user, historic offshore funds follow their own transitional rules. Sorting your banking before you move is far easier than untangling it afterwards, and it is one of the first things we set up for arriving clients.
Double taxation relief on income taxed before you arrived
Double taxation relief stops the same income or gain being fully taxed twice when both the UK and another country have a claim, and it is central to a clean move. In most arrival cases, split-year treatment already removes UK tax on foreign income from before your arrival date, so there is nothing to relieve. Where overlap does occur, the UK's network of double taxation treaties decides which country taxes what, and the treaty often gives one country the primary right while the other gives a credit.
If foreign income is taxed in both countries, you can usually claim foreign tax credit relief in the UK for the overseas tax paid, capped at the UK tax on the same income. Where no treaty exists, unilateral relief may still be available. Treaty residence tie-breaker rules can also matter in your year of arrival if you are technically resident in two countries at once. These provisions are detailed and country-specific, so the right answer for someone moving from the US, the UAE, Australia or the EU can differ significantly. Cross-border treaty work is our core specialism, and we coordinate the UK side with your home-country adviser where needed.
Registering for Self Assessment as a new arriver
You must register for Self Assessment if you have UK tax to report that is not fully collected through PAYE, which includes most new arrivers with foreign income, a FIG or split-year claim, or self-employment. The deadline to register is 5 October following the end of the tax year in which the liability arises: for the 2025/26 tax year, that means registering by 5 October 2026.
If you are not self-employed you register using form SA1; the self-employed register slightly differently. HMRC then issues a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), which you need to file. The 2025/26 return is filed after the tax year ends, with deadlines of 31 October 2026 for paper returns and 31 January 2027 for online returns, and any tax is due by 31 January 2027. The residence and Foreign Income and Gains pages (form SA109, retitled for 2025/26) are where you record your arrival date, the relevant split-year case and any FIG claim. Allow time for the UTR and any activation details to arrive, especially if post is going overseas, and do not leave registration until the filing deadline.
National Insurance and social security agreements
National Insurance follows separate rules from income tax, so being UK tax resident does not automatically mean you pay UK National Insurance from day one. Which country's social security you pay into depends on where you work and on any agreement between the UK and your home country, and getting this wrong can mean paying into two systems at once or building gaps in your contribution record.
If you move from a country with which the UK has a social security agreement (including EU and EEA states under the relevant arrangements, and a number of other nations with bilateral agreements), you may be able to stay in your home-country system for a period using a certificate such as an A1 or a certificate of coverage, which exempts you from UK National Insurance. A separate 52-week exemption from UK National Insurance can apply where you are sent to work in the UK by an overseas employer that has its place of business outside the UK and you are not ordinarily resident or ordinarily employed here, but it does not apply automatically to everyone who simply moves and takes a UK job. Because these rules affect your future UK State Pension and benefits, it is worth checking your position deliberately rather than assuming it follows your income tax status.
Returning UK expats: what to watch for
Returning UK expats face two issues that fresh arrivers do not, so this group needs particular care. The first is the FIG regime's 10-year rule: you only qualify if you were non-UK resident for at least 10 consecutive tax years before you return. Many returners have been away for less than that, which means the four-year relief is simply not available, and any plan built around it has to be reconsidered.
The second is temporary non-residence. If you were UK resident, left for a relatively short period and then return, anti-avoidance rules can pull certain income and gains realised while you were away back into UK tax in your year of return. This commonly catches distributions and dividends from close companies, gains on assets owned before you left, and some pension lump sums taken during a brief absence. The interaction with split-year treatment and double taxation relief in the year you come back can be intricate, and the cost of getting it wrong is real. If you are returning to the UK, it is worth mapping the position before you book your move, which is exactly the kind of self-contained, fixed-fee review we do.