Statutory Residence Test Calculator 2026/27

The statutory residence test (SRT) is the law in Schedule 45 of the Finance Act 2013 that decides whether you are UK tax resident for a tax year. It runs in three stages: the automatic overseas tests, then the automatic UK tests, then the sufficient ties test, which weighs the days you spend in the UK against your connections to it. The 2026/27 tax year runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.

There is no single number. If you were UK resident in any of the previous three tax years you are automatically non-resident below 16 days; if you were not, the limit is 45 days. Above that, your safe day count depends on how many UK ties you have, falling to 120 days with two ties as an arriver or 90 days with two ties as a leaver. This calculator works out your personal limit.

Only in narrow cases. 183 days makes you automatically resident, but someone who left the UK can be resident on as few as 16 days with four ties, and on 121 days with just one tie. The 182-day rule of thumb belongs to the pre-2013 regime and catches out many returning expats.

A day counts if you are in the UK at midnight at the end of it. Days spent purely in transit, where you arrive as a passenger and leave the next day without doing unrelated business, are ignored. Days you are forced to stay by exceptional circumstances beyond your control, such as a sudden illness or a national emergency, can be excluded up to a cap of 60 days a year.

The family tie (a UK-resident spouse, partner or minor child, though a child you see in the UK on fewer than 61 days does not count), the accommodation tie (a UK place available for at least 91 continuous days that you use for at least one night, or 16 nights at a close relative’s home), the work tie (40 or more days doing more than three hours’ work in the UK), the 90-day tie (more than 90 UK days in either of the two previous tax years) and the country tie (more midnights in the UK than in any other single country). The country tie only applies to leavers.

HMRC’s tables split people by history. If you were UK resident in at least one of the three previous tax years (2023/24, 2024/25 or 2025/26 for this year) you use the leaver table, which needs fewer ties and counts the country tie. If you were non-resident in all three, you use the arriver table, which needs more ties and starts at 46 days.

If you were UK resident in one of the previous three years, have at least three UK ties and are in the UK on more than 30 days without being here at midnight, every such day beyond the 30th is counted as a UK day. It targets frequent commuters who fly out each evening. Deemed days are ignored for the full-time work abroad test but count everywhere else.

You are automatically non-resident if you work full-time overseas, averaging at least 35 hours a week over the year, with no gap of 31 days or more in your overseas work (holiday and sick leave do not count as gaps), and you spend fewer than 91 days in the UK, with fewer than 31 of those days involving more than three hours’ UK work. It does not apply to crews of ships, aircraft or vehicles who cross borders as part of the job.

Yes, under the second automatic UK test. If you have a UK home for a period of at least 91 consecutive days, at least 30 of which fall in the tax year, you are present there on at least 30 days, and you have no overseas home or spend fewer than 30 days in any overseas home, you are resident regardless of your day count.

If you arrive in or leave the UK part-way through a tax year and are resident for that year, split year treatment can divide it into a UK part and an overseas part, so income from the overseas part is generally taxed as if you were non-resident. It applies automatically when you meet one of eight statutory cases, such as starting full-time work abroad or setting up your only home in the UK. You must be resident under the SRT for the year before split year can apply.

Residence is decided for the whole tax year, so without split year treatment you are resident from 6 April even if you arrived in December. That matters for anyone with foreign income or gains earned before the move. Plan the date and structure of your arrival so one of the split year cases applies.

The US test counts calendar-year days, not tax years. You are a US resident if you spend at least 31 days in the US this year and a weighted total of 183 days or more, counting all of this year’s days, one third of last year’s and one sixth of the year before. Unlike the SRT, ties play no part, although a closer connection to another country can be claimed on Form 8840.

Yes. Each country applies its own law, so it is common to be UK resident under the SRT and US resident under the substantial presence test at once. Article 4 of the US–UK tax treaty then breaks the tie by looking at your permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode and nationality. A US citizen cannot use the tie-breaker to escape US tax because of the treaty’s saving clause.

No. US citizens and green card holders are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live, so the SRT only decides whether the UK also taxes you. A US citizen who becomes UK resident will usually rely on the foreign tax credit or the foreign earned income exclusion to avoid paying twice on the same income.

From 6 April 2025 the remittance basis was replaced by the 4-year FIG regime. If you become UK resident after at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-residence, you can claim full relief from UK tax on foreign income and gains for your first four years of UK residence. Americans moving to London often qualify, although the US still taxes that income in full.

No. Residence and domicile are separate concepts, and since April 2025 most UK tax rules depend on residence rather than domicile. The SRT decides your residence for income tax and capital gains tax for one tax year at a time.

Keep a day-by-day diary backed by travel bookings, boarding passes, passport stamps, card statements and work calendars. HMRC can open an enquiry years later, and the burden of proving your day count and ties falls on you. Keep records of working hours too if you rely on the work tie or the full-time work abroad test.

You claim non-residence on the SA109 residence pages of your Self Assessment return, giving your UK days and your ties. If you have left the UK and have no further UK income, you can also notify HMRC with form P85.

No. It applies the 2026/27 statutory tests to your answers but cannot check the facts behind them, and the definitions of home, work and available accommodation are where most disputes arise. It does not model split year treatment, the tests for people who die during the year or the temporary non-residence anti-avoidance rules.