For Britons

How tax residency works

UK residence is decided separately for each tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April, under the Statutory Residence Test, or SRT. You work through it in order: the automatic overseas tests, then the automatic UK tests, then the sufficient ties test. The first test that gives an answer settles your status for that year.

A day generally counts if you are in the UK at midnight. Leavers, meaning people who were UK resident in any of the previous three tax years, get tighter limits than new arrivals: the more UK ties you keep, the fewer days you can spend in the UK and still be non resident.

• Automatic overseas tests: fewer than 16 days in the UK in the tax year, or full time work abroad (an average of 35 hours a week) with fewer than 91 days in the UK and fewer than 31 days on which you work there for more than three hours.
• Automatic UK tests: 183 days or more in the UK, having your only home in the UK, or full time work in the UK.
• Sufficient ties test: leavers count five ties (family, accommodation, work, more than 90 days in the UK in either of the previous two years, and the country tie, meaning more midnights in the UK than in any other country). With 16 to 45 days in the UK, four ties make you resident; with 46 to 90 days, three; with 91 to 120 days, two; above 120 days, one.
• Split year treatment: in the year you leave, the tax year can be split so that foreign income after your departure falls outside UK tax. It applies only if you meet one of the statutory cases, such as starting full time work abroad or ceasing to have any home in the UK.

Leaving properly

No form makes you non resident. HMRC, the UK tax authority, looks at the facts, so the aim is a clean, documented break: a real home abroad, a planned day count and as few UK ties as is practical.

1. 01

   Plan your first two tax years

   Map your day count and ties against the SRT before you go. The year you leave and the year after are when most residence claims fail.

2. 02

   Tell HMRC you are leaving

   If you are not in Self Assessment, file form P85 with your P45 if you have one. If you are, report your departure on the residence pages, form SA109, and claim split year treatment there.

3. 03

   Set up a real home abroad

   Rent or buy a home in your new country and register as a resident there. It supports split year treatment and the tie breaker in any tax treaty.

4. 04

   Arrange your UK property

   If you will let your home, register with the Non Resident Landlord Scheme. Keep your purchase and improvement records for the eventual sale.

5. 05

   Check your National Insurance record

   Look for gaps before you go. Voluntary contributions from abroad became harder to make from April 2026.

6. 06

   Keep evidence each year

   Keep a day count log, travel records and proof of your overseas home. They are your evidence if HMRC asks.

Exit tax, property and investments

The UK does not tax unrealised gains when you leave. The catch is temporary non residence: if you were UK resident in at least 4 of the 7 tax years before you left and you come back within 5 years, gains you made while away on assets you already owned, and some income such as dividends from close companies, are taxed in the year you return. A sale abroad only stays outside UK tax if you stay away for more than five years.

UK land and property stay taxable whoever owns them. Non residents pay capital gains tax on UK homes, commercial property and shares in UK property rich companies, and must report each sale to HMRC within 60 days of completion, even when no tax is due. For property you already owned, the gain can usually be measured from its value in April 2015 for homes or April 2019 for other property. Rent is paid under the Non Resident Landlord Scheme, so your agent or tenant withholds basic rate tax unless HMRC approves you to receive it gross.

Private residence relief, the exemption for your home, still covers the last nine months of ownership. For any tax year in which you are non resident, though, a UK home only counts as your residence if you spend at least 90 midnights in it, or in your UK homes combined, that year.

Since 6 April 2025, inheritance tax depends on long term residence instead of domicile. If you were UK resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years, your worldwide estate stays within UK inheritance tax for 3 to 10 tax years after you leave: 3 years if you were resident for 10 to 13 years, plus one year for each further year, up to 10. UK assets such as UK property stay within inheritance tax whatever your residence, and from 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds also count towards your estate.

You can keep an ISA, the UK tax free savings account, after you leave and it stays tax free in the UK, but you cannot add new money while non resident. Your new country may tax the income, so check how it is treated there.

Pensions and social security

Private and workplace pensions can stay in the UK. Many tax treaties give the taxing right on private pensions to the country you live in, and HMRC can then issue a code so no UK tax is deducted; without a treaty, UK tax applies. Moving a pension to an overseas scheme, known as a QROPS (qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme), triggers a 25% overseas transfer charge unless you live in the same country as the scheme, and since April 2025 that applies to schemes in the European Economic Area too.

The State Pension can be paid anywhere, but it only rises each year if you live in the UK, the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, Switzerland or a country with a social security agreement that provides for increases, such as the United States or Turkey. Elsewhere, including Paraguay, Panama, Uruguay, the UAE, Georgia, Australia and Canada, it stays at the rate you first receive abroad.

Voluntary National Insurance changed on 6 April 2026. You can no longer pay the cheaper Class 2 contributions for time abroad, and paying voluntary Class 3 contributions (£18.40 a week for 2026 to 2027) now requires 10 years of continuous UK residence or 10 years of paid contributions. You need 35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension, so check your record before you leave.

Dual citizenship

The UK allows dual citizenship. You keep your British citizenship when you acquire another nationality, you do not need to apply or tell the Home Office, and living abroad does not affect it however long you are away.

Keep your British passport valid. Dual British citizens cannot use an electronic travel authorisation to enter the UK, so you travel on your UK passport or a certificate of entitlement. Our citizenship programs in St Kitts and Nevis, Turkey and Vanuatu allow you to keep your British citizenship alongside the new one.