How to Report Foreign Income on Your UK Tax Return: the SA106, Foreign Tax Credit Relief and FIG

Most UK residents with foreign income do. GOV.UK says you usually need to fill in a Self Assessment return if you are UK resident with foreign income or capital gains (GOV.UK). The narrow exception is someone whose only foreign income is dividends, whose total dividends (UK included) are under the £500 dividend allowance, and who has no other income to report.

Residence drives the answer. A UK resident normally pays UK tax on foreign income unless eligible for Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) relief. A non-resident does not pay UK tax on foreign income at all (GOV.UK). One detail surprises people: the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man count as foreign. If your status for 2025/26 is unclear, settle it first under the Statutory Residence Test, and if you arrived or left part way through the year, look at split-year treatment too.

The dates are fixed. The 2025/26 online return must be submitted by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027, and the tax must be paid by the same time. A paper return must reach HMRC by 11:59pm on 31 October 2026. 31 January is also when the balancing payment and any first payment on account fall due (GOV.UK). File late and there is an initial £100 penalty, with daily penalties of £10 a day once the return is 3 months late, up to £900 (GOV.UK).

Never filed before, or registered before but not needed to file for 2024/25? You were meant to tell HMRC by 5 October 2026. Tell HMRC now anyway. Telling HMRC after that date could lead to a penalty, and HMRC will send a letter or email with a filing deadline 3 months from its date, or 31 January 2027 if that is later (SA150 notes), but the tax is still due by 31 January 2027 (GOV.UK). If you register late and do not pay all of the tax by 31 January, you may get a failure to notify penalty based on the amount still unpaid. Our guide to the 31 January 2027 deadline sets out the full timetable, and our guide to a first UK tax return for foreign nationals covers registration.

Non-residents are different. If you were non-resident for 2025/26, foreign income is outside UK tax, and someone resident abroad who completes the SA109 should not complete the SA106 Foreign pages (GOV.UK). UK rent is still taxable, and it goes on the SA105 property pages alongside the residence pages. Our non-resident landlord tax return guide and our non-resident landlord returns page cover that route.

Two shortcuts exist on the main return. Both are narrow. If your only foreign income was untaxed foreign interest of up to £2,000, you can enter it in pounds in box 3 on page TR 3 of the SA100 instead of completing the Foreign pages. Over £2,000, the Foreign pages are required (GOV.UK).

Foreign dividends of up to £500 can go in box 6 of the SA100 as the net amount in pounds, with the foreign tax taken off in box 7. That only works where your only foreign income is that interest and those dividends, and you are claiming deduction relief. If your total dividend income, UK and foreign together, is over £500 and you can claim deduction relief or Foreign Tax Credit Relief, the foreign dividend goes on the SA106 instead.

Everything else goes on the SA106. It is the set of supplementary pages for recording foreign income and gains on the SA100, and the 2025/26 versions are Foreign (2026) and Foreign notes (2026) (GOV.UK). The notes cover overseas savings interest, foreign dividends, overseas pensions and benefits, and income from land and property abroad. The SA106 is filed with the SA100 and never on its own.

One rule overrides the shortcuts. If you claim FIG relief by putting an X in box 28 of the SA109, you must not use boxes 3 and 6 on page TR 3. Any untaxed foreign interest and any foreign dividends, however small, go in box 4 or 6 on page F 2 of the SA106 (GOV.UK).

The table maps the common types of foreign income to the page that reports them for a UK resident on the 2025/26 return. Many returns need more than one row.

Every figure on the SA106 is in pounds. The 2025/26 notes say to convert the income into UK pounds using the exchange rate at the time the income arose, and to put the full amount in the boxes even if you did not bring it into the UK (GOV.UK). Apply one consistent, reasonable basis across the return and keep the workings: the rate, the date and where the rate came from.

Gains work differently. A gain on a foreign asset is computed in sterling using the exchange rates at acquisition and at disposal, which is why the cost history matters as much as the sale price.

One special case for former remittance basis users: a Temporary Repatriation Facility designation on the 2025/26 return is treated as made at the start of the tax year, 6 April 2025, which fixes the date for converting the designated amount to sterling (GOV.UK).

Foreign Tax Credit Relief (FTCR) stops the same income being taxed twice. The UK credit is the lower of the foreign tax paid (or the amount the treaty allows) and the UK tax on that income or gain (HS263, GOV.UK). You do not have to work it out yourself. HMRC will calculate it if the relevant boxes are completed and the return is filed by the deadline.

The limits are where returns go wrong:

• The credit cannot exceed the UK tax on the same item. Foreign tax above that cap is not repaid by HMRC; any recovery has to come from the foreign tax authority.
• It is calculated separately for each item of income or gain. Surplus credit on a heavily taxed source cannot absorb UK tax on a lightly taxed one.
• It cannot be claimed on income covered by a FIG claim.
• Only foreign tax properly due under the other country's law and any treaty qualifies. Over-withheld tax is reclaimed abroad.
• Deduction relief, where you are taxed on the net amount instead, is an alternative that is generally only preferable where there is no UK tax liability in the year.

A simple illustration from our double tax relief guide: UK tax on a source is £4,000 and the foreign tax paid on it is £3,000. The credit is £3,000 and £1,000 of UK tax remains. Had the foreign tax been £5,000, the credit would stop at £4,000, UK tax on that source would fall to nil, and the extra £1,000 would not come back from HMRC.

Relief is given under a treaty or, where no treaty covers the income, as unilateral relief under UK law, still capped at the UK tax due, so the route rarely changes the figure. GOV.UK is plain that you may not get back the full amount of foreign tax you paid (GOV.UK).

Recent arrivals may file a different return. A qualifying new resident is in one of their first 4 years of UK residence after at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence, and can claim FIG relief on foreign income and gains (HS266, GOV.UK). The claim is made on the SA109: box 28 for foreign income, box 29 for foreign gains. Our FIG regime returns page explains how we file them.

Three rules decide whether the claim works. It must be made for each amount of foreign income, from each source, and for every year relief is wanted. It must be quantified: a wrong figure does not invalidate a claim, but not quantifying it at all does (RFIG42100, GOV.UK). And it has a price: a claim costs the personal allowance (£12,570) and the CGT annual exempt amount for that year, even if the claim covers income only. If your UK earnings still attract the personal allowance, claiming on a small amount of foreign interest will usually cost more than it saves.

Salary sits outside the FIG claim. Foreign employment earnings are excluded from the box 28 income claim, and the route for them is Overseas Workday Relief: an election in box 40 and a claim in box 41 of the SA109, with the amounts in boxes 44 to 49. Relief is capped at the lower of 30% of qualifying employment income and £300,000 (GOV.UK), and the overseas share is apportioned on a just and reasonable basis, which in practice means a workday record kept as the year runs. The allowances lost are the same whether you make a FIG claim, an OWR election or both, so the costs do not stack.

Two interactions catch people. Where FIG relief takes foreign income out of UK tax, there is no UK tax for a credit to reduce, so FTCR has nothing to do on that income. And former remittance basis users who want to designate pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains under the Temporary Repatriation Facility make the election on the same SA109 (box 50), at 12% for 2025/26.

The time limit for a 2025/26 FIG claim is 31 January 2028, but the return is due by 31 January 2027, so the claim belongs in this season's return. To file the SA109 online you need commercial software or a professional agent (GOV.UK). Our walkthroughs of claiming the FIG regime on the tax return and Overseas Workday Relief set out every box.

These are the most common errors on returns with foreign income:

• Leaving income off because it stayed abroad. A UK resident reports the full amount whether or not it came to the UK, and a FIG claim still has to be quantified.
• Using SA100 boxes 3 and 6 while claiming FIG. A box 28 claim moves all foreign interest and dividends to the SA106.
• Ticking box 28 without the numbers. An unquantified FIG claim is invalid, so the income stays taxable (RFIG42100).
• Expecting box 28 to cover salary. Foreign employment earnings need the Overseas Workday Relief election and claim.
• Claiming FTCR on FIG-relieved income, or pooling foreign tax across different sources.
• Treating the sale of a non-reporting fund as a capital gain.
• Putting a foreign salary on the SA106 instead of the Employment pages.
• Planning to file the SA109 through HMRC's free online service, then finding in late January that it cannot be done.

Earlier years that were never reported are a separate problem with a separate route. Disclose through the Worldwide Disclosure Facility, ideally before HMRC makes contact, because offshore penalties are significantly higher than domestic ones. Our guide to nudge letters and worldwide disclosure explains the process.

We prepare and file the whole return. Horizon UK Tax Solutions is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) practice, founder-led by Jordan Onraet-Wells, with over 10 years of experience including 7 years at a Big Four firm. We file as your authorised agent with HMRC, including the SA109 pages that HMRC's free online service cannot file, and we handle SA106 foreign income and Foreign Tax Credit Relief, FIG claims, Overseas Workday Relief and split-year claims.

The process is short. A free 30-minute clarity call. A fixed quote and engagement. Identity and address checks before work starts, as anti-money-laundering rules require. Documents uploaded to a secure client portal. We prepare the return, you review and approve it, and we file it and confirm what to pay and when. You stay legally responsible for your own tax, which is why you check the figures before we submit (GOV.UK).

Fees are fixed and published. A Standard Personal Tax Return is £350. A Non-Resident and Expat Tax Return is £550. A Complex Personal Tax Return, for multiple income streams, investments, trusts or complex structures, is from £750. Advisory and planning work is quoted as a fixed fee agreed in writing before work starts. We never bill by the hour.

Everything is handled remotely, for clients across six continents, with direct access to the adviser. Where a filing is needed in another country, we lead on the UK position and coordinate vetted specialists there; we do not file other countries' returns. Book a free 30-minute clarity call and you will have a fixed quote before any work starts. You can also see how we handle overseas income returns or start at our 31 January tax returns hub.