Statutory Residence Test
Work through a few questions about your tax year, days in the UK, work, homes and ties.
We'll show you how the test is likely to treat you and what to watch in the years that follow.
About you
The test looks at one UK tax year at a time (6 April to the following 5 April) and it cares about your recent history, because the thresholds are stricter for people who have recently been UK resident.
2) Were you UK tax resident in any of the three tax years before this one?
If you are not sure, the safe assumption for someone who has recently lived or worked in the UK is "yes". This one answer decides which set of thresholds applies to you, so it matters.
Your days in the UK
A day for the main tests means you were in the UK at midnight. Transit days may not count.
Leave at 0 unless you were kept in the UK by events outside your control and left as soon as you could. HMRC applies a high bar.
Your work
Working full time overseas can make you automatically non-resident. Working full time in the UK can make you automatically resident.
Optional overseas-hours estimate
Your homes
The home tests look at where you had a home and how many days you were present in it.
Your UK ties
If no automatic test decides your position, your day count is set against the number of ties you have to the UK.
Ties counted automatically
Work: not counted
90-day: not counted
Country tie: not counted
Your indicative position
This is how the Statutory Residence Test is likely to treat the answers you have given. It is an indication, not advice.
The Statutory Residence Test in brief
The test has applied since 6 April 2013 and is set out in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013. HMRC's guidance is in the Residence and FIG Regime Manual at RFIG20000. The test is applied in this order, and the first part that gives an answer is final.
Step 1: the automatic overseas tests (conclusively non-resident)
- Fewer than 16 UK days, if you were UK resident in any of the previous three tax years.
- Fewer than 46 UK days, if you were not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years.
- Full-time work overseas: an average of at least 35 hours a week worked overseas, no significant break of 31 or more days, fewer than 91 UK days and fewer than 31 UK work days.
Step 2: the automatic UK tests (conclusively resident)
- 183 or more UK days.
- The UK home test: a UK home for a period of at least 91 consecutive days (at least 30 of them in the tax year), present in it on at least 30 days, and either no overseas home or present in each overseas home on fewer than 30 days.
- Full-time work in the UK over a 365-day period, with more than 75% of working days in the UK and no significant break.
Step 3: the sufficient ties test
Five possible ties: family, accommodation, work (40 or more UK work days), the 90-day tie (90 or more UK days in either of the previous two tax years) and, for leavers only, the country tie (more midnights in the UK than in any other country).
A "leaver" is someone who was UK resident in at least one of the three tax years before the one being tested. Everyone else is an "arriver". Someone who leaves the UK stays on the leaver table for three full tax years and moves to the arriver table from the fourth.
Counting days: midnights, transit and the deeming rule
A day counts if you are in the UK at the end of it (midnight). Transit days do not count if you do nothing beyond passing through. Up to 60 days of exceptional circumstances can be disregarded from the main day counts (the 183-day test, the automatic overseas day limits, the ties bands and the 90-day tie), but this is a cap and the conditions are strict. The disregard does not apply to work days, to the 30-day presence count in the UK home test, to the country tie or to the deeming rule.
The deeming rule stops leavers day-tripping. If you were resident in any of the previous three years, have three or more ties, and spend more than 30 days in the UK without being here at midnight, every such day after the 30th is added to your count. It does not apply to the 91-day limit in the full-time work overseas test.
What this checker leaves out
- Split year treatment. In the year you leave or arrive, the year can sometimes be divided into a UK part and an overseas part. There are eight cases with a strict order of priority and most of them depend on what happens in the following tax year. This checker treats every year as a whole year.
- Temporary non-residence. If you return to the UK within five years of leaving, certain income and gains that arose while you were away can become taxable on your return.
- Double tax treaties. Being resident in another country as well as the UK brings the treaty tie-breaker into play. This checker only looks at the UK rules.
- The fine detail of exceptional circumstances, the full-time work calculations and the definitions of "home" and "work". The checker lets you enter exceptional days and estimate your overseas hours, but each of these has pages of guidance behind it and HMRC will expect evidence.
- Deceased persons, international transport workers and split-year day limits. These have their own variations of the tests.
- Inheritance tax. Since 6 April 2025 IHT has followed long-term residence rather than domicile, with its own 10-out-of-20-year test. That is a different test with different consequences.
Want the real answer?
Residence is decided on facts, dates and evidence, not on a form. If the result above matters to you, or you are planning a move between the UK and the UAE, speak to a chartered tax adviser before you rely on anything. We would be delighted to talk it through with you on a call.
Important: please read before using this page
- Guidance and education only, not advice. This page is an educational tool to help you understand how the UK Statutory Residence Test works. It does not constitute tax, legal or financial advice, and nothing on it creates an adviser and client relationship between you and Sterling & Hunter.
- It cannot be relied upon. The result is an indication based only on the answers you give. It has not been checked against your circumstances, your records or your documents. You must not rely on it to make decisions, to complete a tax return, or in any dealings with HMRC or any other tax authority. Sterling & Hunter accepts no liability for any loss arising from its use.
- Seek advice from a chartered tax adviser. To take anything further you need advice from a suitably qualified professional, such as a Chartered Tax Adviser, who has reviewed your full facts. Residence cases turn on detail: exact dates, the nature of your work, the terms on which you hold property and the position of your family.
- Split year treatment is not included. This checker treats every tax year as a whole year. In the year you leave or arrive in the UK, split year treatment may divide the year into a UK part and an overseas part. Whether it applies, and which of the eight cases applies, is not considered here at all and can change the outcome materially.
- Later tax years can change this year’s answer. The test for one year depends on the years around it. In particular, a leaver’s position in the year of departure will often depend on being non-resident, and in some cases by working full time overseas, for the whole of the following tax year. If that later year goes differently, the earlier year can be reopened. Your day counts this year also feed the 90-day tie for the next two years, and returning to the UK within five years can bring income and gains that arose while you were away into UK tax. The result tab sets out the follow-on points that apply to your answers, but it does not cover every possibility.
- Other rules are outside scope. Double tax treaties, exceptional circumstances, the detailed full-time work calculations, inheritance tax long-term residence and the tax position in any other country are not covered.
- The law and guidance change. This page reflects our understanding of Schedule 45 Finance Act 2013 and HMRC’s Residence and FIG Regime Manual as at September 2026. We have no duty to update it.