INTERNATIONAL TAX & UK RESIDENCE
Moving to or from the UK? Get your residence position right
Your UK residence decides what the UK can tax. We help you work out your status for each tax year, apply split-year treatment where it’s available, and report your UK and overseas income correctly.
Led by Chris Clark, Fellow of the AAT (FMAAT) · AAT licensed practice · Reviewed on Trustpilot
WHO WE HELP
When international tax questions arise
Most questions start with a move, a new job or income from another country. The answer depends on your residence for each tax year and where your income comes from.
Arriving to work
Starting a UK job after time abroad, and the first year of UK residence.
Leaving the UK
Moving abroad for work or to live, and the final UK return for the year you go.
Returning after time abroad
Coming home after several years away, including the four-year foreign income and gains regime.
Working across borders
Workdays in more than one country, and how your salary is taxed in the UK.
Overseas income and investments
Foreign interest, dividends, rent and gains, and relief for foreign tax.
Letting UK property from abroad
The non-resident landlord scheme and UK returns while you live overseas.
UK RESIDENCE
Are you a UK tax resident? The Statutory Residence Test
One tax year at a time. Your residence is decided separately for each tax year, from 6 April to 5 April, under the Statutory Residence Test.
Automatic tests first. Some people are automatically non-resident, for example because they spend very few days in the UK or work full-time abroad. Others are automatically resident, for example because they spend 183 days or more in the UK.
Then your ties. If no automatic test settles it, the answer depends on your UK days and your ties to the UK, such as family, accommodation, work and time spent here in earlier years.
Records matter. Keep a record of your travel dates and workdays. Detailed written residence opinions are scoped and quoted separately.
How we can help
Residence reviews: we work through the tests for the years you arrive or leave. Complex cases are assessed individually.
Split-year treatment: we check whether your year can be split and from which date.
UK returns: we prepare your Self Assessment return, including the residence pages.
ARRIVING AND LEAVING
The year you arrive or leave
The first and last years are often the hardest to get right.
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Split-year treatment
In some situations, such as starting full-time work abroad or setting up your only home in the UK, the year can be split into a UK part and an overseas part.
Only set circumstances qualify, and the date of the split depends on the facts.
02
Telling HMRC
If you’re leaving the UK and don’t complete a Self Assessment return, you can tell HMRC using form P85.
If you do file returns, your departure is reported on the residence pages.
03
Overseas employment
Working full-time abroad can make you non-resident, provided your UK days and UK workdays stay within strict limits.
A few extra UK workdays can change the result.
04
Coming back within five years
Some gains and income arising while you’re abroad can become taxable when you return. This can apply if you had sole UK residence in at least four of the seven tax years before leaving and your period of non-residence was five years or less. The detailed conditions and the type of income or gain matter.
We check this before you leave and when you come back.
NEW TO THE UK
The four-year foreign income and gains regime
Since 6 April 2025, people who become UK resident after ten consecutive tax years of non-residence may be able to claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first four years of UK residence.
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You may qualify if you become UK resident and weren’t UK resident in any of the previous ten tax years. A split year counts as one of your four years.
Having lived abroad recently isn’t enough on its own: the full ten-year residence history matters, including any earlier years in the UK.
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A claim can cover foreign income and foreign gains. UK income, such as a UK salary or rent from UK property, is always taxable.
Whether an asset is foreign depends on the type of asset and the rules for that asset, not on where your bank or broker is based.
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Claiming any relief for a year means losing your Personal Allowance and your Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for that year. Income covered by a claim still counts towards your adjusted net income.
Claims are made source by source and year by year. A claim isn’t always worthwhile, so we compare the figures with and without one.
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If you qualify for the four-year foreign income and gains regime, Overseas Workday Relief can cover earnings for work done abroad in those first four years of UK residence. It is capped at the lower of 30% of your qualifying employment income and £300,000 a year, and must be claimed.
If you previously used the remittance basis, transitional arrangements may apply, including for bringing earlier foreign income and gains to the UK. We consider these case by case.
DOUBLE TAXATION
Taxed in two countries
If the same income or gain is taxed abroad and in the UK, relief is usually given as a credit for the foreign tax. The credit is generally limited to the UK tax on that income, and a double tax treaty may decide which country has the first right to tax it.
We don’t prepare foreign tax returns or advise on foreign law, but we can work alongside your overseas adviser. Cross-border National Insurance and social security are separate questions, which we’ll flag if they arise. For Inheritance Tax, long-term UK residence replaced domicile as the main test from 6 April 2025; we consider this case by case.
NON-RESIDENT LANDLORDS
Living abroad and letting UK property
Who the scheme covers. The non-resident landlord scheme applies to landlords whose usual place of abode is outside the UK – broadly, if you’re abroad for more than six months a year. This is a separate test from your UK tax residence under the Statutory Residence Test.
Tax taken from your rent. A letting agent generally deducts basic-rate tax from the rent, less allowable expenses. If you have no agent and your tenant pays you more than £100 a week, the tenant may have to deduct it, subject to HMRC’s rules. HMRC can approve you to receive rent without tax deducted.
You still file a return. UK rental profit is taxable even when you live abroad, so a Self Assessment return is usually needed. Tax already deducted is credited against your UK tax bill for the year.
Selling UK property. If you’re non-resident, every sale of UK property must be reported within 60 days, even if there’s no tax to pay. See our Capital Gains Tax page.
How we can help
Applications to receive rent without deduction, subject to HMRC approval
Annual UK Self Assessment returns
Checking the tax deducted against your agent’s statements
Reporting a UK property sale while you live abroad
ILLUSTRATIVE SCENARIO
Rory Returner: the relief that wasn’t worth claiming
Rory Returner is a fictional client. His circumstances and figures are illustrative and simplified.
Rory spent eleven years working in Dubai and let his London flat while he was away. He came back in mid-November, stayed in a hotel, then moved into a rented flat and started a UK job on 1 December. When his UK home began, and how he’d spent the previous ten years, decided how his tax year was split and which reliefs were open to him.
His Dubai salary stayed outside UK tax. His UK rent was taxed for the whole year, with some tax already withheld under the scheme for overseas landlords. His overseas interest, his dividends, and a gain on registered shares in a UAE-incorporated company with its share register in the UAE were taxable from his return.
Rory was eligible for the four-year foreign income and gains regime, but claiming relief would have increased his overall UK tax liability. Understanding his residence history, income sources and the allowances he would lose was therefore essential.
Rory Returner – at a glance (2026/27)
UK salary (from 1 December) £30,000
UK rental profit (whole year) £20,400
Adjusted net income £55,400
Foreign interest and dividends £5,000
Foreign share gain £8,000
Total UK tax – no claim £10,285.75
Total UK tax – full claim £12,620.00
Landlord tax already withheld (credit) £2,720
Extra cost of claiming £2,334.25
Any claim would have removed Rory’s Personal Allowance and his Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount. The relief on his foreign income and gain was worth less than those allowances. The £2,720 withheld from his rent is credited against his bill either way. Whether a claim helps depends on his residence history, his income and gains, and whether he meets the statutory conditions.
Fictional example using 2026/27 rates outside Scotland. The £5,000 of foreign income is assumed to be £2,000 of interest and £3,000 of dividends. It depends on the residence facts described, including no UK home before 1 December 2026 and a full UK-resident year in 2027/28, no foreign tax, and no other income or gains. The answer can differ for other people and in other years. Not a recommendation.
HOW CJC CAN HELP
Clear answers on residence and reporting
What we do
Review your residence position for the years you arrive or leave
Prepare split-year and arrival or departure returns
Claim relief for foreign tax in your UK return
Prepare non-resident landlord returns and gross-payment applications
Consider foreign income and gains and Overseas Workday Relief claims case by case
What to have ready
Travel dates and a record of your UK workdays
Employment contracts and payslips, in the UK and abroad
The dates you had a home in the UK or overseas
Foreign bank, investment and rental statements
Details of any foreign tax paid
Previous UK tax returns and HMRC letters
FAQ
Questions about international tax
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Not by itself. Spending 183 days or more in the UK in a tax year makes you resident. Below that, it depends on the automatic tests, your UK days and your ties to the UK.
With several ties, such as family or available accommodation here, fewer days can be enough.
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If you’re UK resident, your employment income is generally taxable in the UK wherever the work is done, subject to split-year treatment, Overseas Workday Relief and relief for foreign tax.
If you’re not UK resident, only earnings for work done in the UK are usually taxable here.
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Usually for the year you leave, and in later years if you still have UK income such as rent. Your return also records your residence position.
If you don’t file returns, you can tell HMRC you’re leaving using form P85.
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The rules can apply if you were solely UK resident for at least four of the seven tax years before you left, and your period of non-residence is five years or less. The five years is the actual period between leaving and returning, not a count of tax years spent abroad.
Where they apply, gains on assets you already owned before leaving, and some types of income, received while you were away can be taxed in the year you return. Assets acquired while abroad are generally outside the rules, so not every gain is affected. It’s worth checking this before you sell assets or take income while abroad.
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You may if you weren’t UK resident in any of the ten tax years before you arrived. Claims are optional and come at a cost: you lose your Personal Allowance and Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for any year you claim.
We compare your tax with and without a claim before you decide.
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International and residence work is quoted individually once we understand your circumstances and records. You can request a quote or book a Personal Tax Advisory Consultation (a 30-minute video call with Chris Clark, normally via Zoom, for £150 including VAT where applicable, with a concise written summary emailed within three working days) to talk through your position first.
Planning a move or already made one?
Book a consultation to talk through your residence position, or request a quote for your return and any claims.
Related: Personal Tax · Capital Gains Tax · Property & Investment Income