UK Residency Rules for Leavers and Arrivers (SRT): What Every Expat Should Know

The Statutory Residence Test (SRT) is the framework used to determine whether an individual is UK resident for tax purposes in a given tax year. Introduced in April 2013, the SRT replaced a patchwork of case law and rules that often left residency status uncertain. In a previous article, we provided a high-level summary of the UK Statutory Residence Test (SRT), outlining its structure and key principles. This follow-up goes further, offering a detailed examination of each test, the definitions that underpin them, and practical examples to illustrate how the rules apply in real scenarios.

Under the SRT, each tax year is assessed separately, and a series of tests are applied in order: automatic non-residence tests, automatic residence tests, and finally (if needed) the “sufficient ties” test. The SRT provides more clarity than the old rules, but it comes with detailed criteria and definitions. This guide examines each test in depth – including what counts as a “day” in the UK, what constitutes a “full-time” job, and how concepts like workdays and ties are defined – with practical examples (using France as the other country for illustration).

Counting Days in the UK

Many SRT conditions are based on the number of days you spend in the UK, so it's crucial to understand how days in the UK are counted. In general, a day counts as spent in the UK if you are present in the UK at midnight at the end of that day. For example, if you fly into the UK on July 1 and leave on July 2, you were present at midnight on July 1, so that counts as 1 day in the UK. However, if you arrive and leave on the same day (never present at a midnight), that day typically does not count. There are important exceptions and nuances to this midnight rule:

• Transit Exception: If you arrive in the UK as a passenger en route to another destination and depart the next day without engaging in any activities unrelated to your onward travel, the day of transit is not counted as a UK day. In other words, simply passing through an airport or port, with no substantive activity in the UK, can be ignored for day-counting.
• Exceptional Circumstances: Days where you are forced to stay in the UK due to extraordinary circumstances beyond your control (for example, serious illness or travel restrictions) can be excluded, up to a maximum of 60 days per tax year. This rule came to prominence during events like volcanic ash disruptions and global pandemics, where individuals unintentionally exceeded their planned stay.
• Anti-Avoidance (Midnight Rule Abuse): The SRT contains an anti-avoidance provision to prevent someone from systematically leaving the UK just before midnight to avoid counting days. If you are present in the UK on more than 30 days without being present at midnight (i.e. 30+ “continuous” days where you leave before midnight each time), those days beyond 30 may be counted as UK days by HMRC. In short, you cannot regularly dodge the clock to stay under day limits.
• “Deemed Days”: In certain cases, even a day where you were not present at midnight might be deemed a UK day – for instance, if you depart the UK on a day and return the same day, or other specific scenarios. These situations are less common, but it underscores that midnight presence is the general rule, with some technical exceptions.

Bottom line: For day-counting under SRT, track every midnight spent in the UK. Being mindful of travel plans around the end of the day is crucial. Also remember that day-count thresholds in the SRT (e.g. 16 days, 46 days, 90 days, 183 days) refer to these counted UK midnights, after excluding any allowable exceptions.

Automatic Non-UK Residence

The first part of the SRT consists of automatic overseas tests, which determine if you are automatically non-UK resident for the tax year. If you meet any one of these tests, you are conclusively treated as non-resident (and you generally do not need to examine further tests in that year). There are three main automatic overseas tests for individuals alive all year (two additional tests apply only if you die during the year, which we will not cover here). We’ll go through each test and clarify the criteria with definitions and examples:

Test 1: Short Visits – Former Residents

If you were resident in the UK in any of the 3 tax years prior to the current tax year (in other words, you are a recent leaver), you will be automatically non-resident in the current year if you spend < 16 days in the UK during this year. Fifteen or fewer days of presence (counted by the midnight rule) is a very limited UK stay, and this threshold recognizes that a long-term UK resident who only comes back for, say, two weeks in the year should not be tax-resident.

Test 2: Short Visits – New Arrivals

If you were not UK resident in any of the previous 3 tax years (a new arriver to UK), you will be automatically non-resident if you spend < 46 days in the UK in the current tax year. In other words, someone with no recent UK history can spend up to 45 days in the UK without becoming resident. This is a slightly more generous allowance than for recent leavers, reflecting the idea that it’s easier to become resident again if you were one recently, but harder to become resident if you haven’t been one in a while.

Test 3: Full-Time Work Abroad

This test applies if you work full-time overseas and spend only limited time in the UK. The test is satisfied if all of the following conditions are met in the tax year:

• Full-Time Overseas Employment: You work full-time abroad for the whole tax year. “Full-time” is defined specifically as averaging 35 hours or more per week of work. This can be one job or multiple jobs/self-employments combined, as long as the total hours meet the threshold. Importantly, there must be no significant break in your overseas work – meaning you don’t take a prolonged hiatus. A “significant break” in work is defined as a period of 31 or more consecutive days during which you do not work for more than 3 hours on any day (ignoring allowable leave like annual holidays, sick leave, or parenting leave). Essentially, you must be continuously working abroad through the year, aside from normal short vacations.
• Limited UK Presence (≤ 90 days): You spend fewer than 91 days in the UK in the tax year. In other words, you must be in the UK for 90 days or less (roughly under three months in total). This ensures your physical presence in the UK is only brief or infrequent.
• Minimal UK Work (≤ 30 days): You work no more than 30 days in the UK during the tax year. A “workday” for SRT purposes is defined as any day on which you do more than 3 hours of work. So you can have at most 30 days where you put in over 3 hours of work in the UK. (Days with shorter incidental work — 3 hours or less — do not count as workdays.) If you work remotely or attend meetings while in the UK, you must keep those workdays under this limit.

If all three conditions are met, you are automatically non-UK resident due to full-time work abroad. This test often applies to expatriates and long-term assignees overseas.

Other Automatic Overseas Tests:

There are two additional automatic overseas tests that apply only to people who die during the tax year (the fourth and fifth tests). These involve conditions such as the deceased person spending under a certain number of days in the UK and meeting the above criteria prior to death. Since they concern year-of-death cases and are quite specific, we won't delve into them here. The vast majority of living individuals will focus on the three tests described above.

If you pass any one of the automatic overseas tests, you are done – you are non-resident for the year, regardless of other connections to the UK. If none of these tests apply to you, then you must move on to consider the automatic UK residence tests next.

Automatic UK Residence

The next tier of the SRT are the automatic UK tests, which determine if you are automatically treated as UK resident for the tax year. These come into play only if you did not meet any automatic overseas test (i.e. you haven’t already been ruled non-resident). If you satisfy any one of the automatic UK tests, then you are conclusively UK resident for that year (and you won’t need to use the ties test). There are three automatic UK tests to consider:

Test 1: 183 Days in the UK

This is the simplest and most clear-cut rule: if you spend 183 days or more in the UK during the tax year, you are automatically a UK resident for that year. One hundred eighty-three days is half the days in a standard tax year (6 April to 5 April), so essentially if you are in the UK for more than half the year, the UK will treat you as resident. This test trumps almost everything else – even if you have no other ties to the UK, exceeding 182 days will make you resident.

How to count days: The same midnight counting rule discussed earlier applies. In practice, 183 days is a high threshold (about six months), but it's not hard to accidentally trigger if you have ongoing travel. Individuals who split time between countries need to track this carefully. Note also that exceptional circumstance days (if applicable) can be subtracted before counting toward 183.

Test 2: Only Home in the UK

This test looks at where your homes are. You will be automatically UK resident if all the following conditions are met regarding your housing:

• You have a home in the UK for ≥ 91 days: There must be at least one period of 91 consecutive days during the tax year in which you have a home in the UK. A “home” can be any place you live with a degree of permanence or stability – it could be a house or flat you own or rent, or even a long-term accommodation provided to you. (It won't include a short-term hotel or holiday rental; see below for definition of home.) The 91 days need not all fall within the tax year, but at least 30 of those days must be in the tax year in question. Essentially, you need a UK home that spans at least three months and overlaps the tax year by at least 30 days.
• You use that UK home for ≥ 30 days in the year: During the tax year, you must be physically present in that UK home on at least 30 separate days. Importantly, for counting “days at home,” it does not matter whether you were there at midnight – any part of a day spent at the home counts as one day toward this 30-day requirement. So even an afternoon visit to your UK house counts as a day there. This ensures the home isn’t just empty; you actually lived in it for a significant number of days.
• Limited (or No) Overseas Homes: While having the UK home, you must not have an overseas home (outside the UK) where you were present for ≥ 30 days during the tax year. If you do have homes abroad, you must use each of those for fewer than 30 days in the year. In other words, the UK must effectively be your only real home for the year. You can still have property abroad, but if you’re spending 30+ days at any overseas residence, then the “only home” test fails (because you have another substantial home).

If all these criteria are satisfied, the UK home is considered your sole main home for the year, and you are automatically a UK resident.

What counts as a “home”? The concept of "home" in SRT is deliberately broad. It can include a house, apartment, or even a boat or caravan, so long as it is a place with a degree of permanence where you reside. The key is that it’s available to you and you actually use it as a residence. Owning the property is not required – e.g. a long-term rental or a home provided by an employer counts. However, purely temporary lodgings (like a hotel room, or a short Airbnb stay) do not usually count as a home under this test. There’s also a time qualifier: to be considered “a home for ≥91 days,” the place must be available to you continuously for that period (short gaps of <16 days when it isn’t available are allowed, to accommodate, say, brief periods between leases).

Test 3: Full-Time Work in the UK

The third automatic UK test covers individuals working substantially in the UK. You will be automatically UK resident if you work full-time in the UK over a continuous period of at least 365 days and meet associated conditions. This is essentially the mirror-image of the full-time abroad test. The conditions (all must be met) are:

• 365-Day Continuous Period of Full-Time UK Work: You have at least one period of 365 consecutive days during which you work on average ≥ 35 hours per week in the UK. This period can start or end in the tax year in question (it doesn’t have to correspond exactly to the tax year, but part of it must fall within the tax year being tested). Essentially, at some point you embarked on a year of full-time work in Britain. The work can be for one employer or multiple, or self-employment – it’s the hours that count, calculated using HMRC’s formula (which accounts for usual work patterns and disregards certain non-working days similar to the overseas test).
• No Significant Break from UK Work: During that 365-day period, you do not have any break of 31 or more consecutive days with no work (ignoring up to 30 days of leave or sick time). In other words, you are continuously working throughout the year-long period without a long gap. This parallels the “significant break” definition from the overseas test, but here it applies to UK work. Taking normal holidays or weekends off is fine; taking a 5-week hiatus between jobs would likely break the continuity.
• Workdays Mostly in UK (75% Rule): Within that same 365-day period, more than 75% of your workdays are UK workdays. A “UK workday” means any day where you perform >3 hours of work in the UK. So this condition ensures that if you have some workdays abroad, they are relatively few. At least three-quarters of all your working days in that year must be spent in the UK. (If you had a lot of foreign business trips or a pattern of working remotely from another country, you might fail this test due to too many non-UK workdays.)
• At Least One UK Workday in the Tax Year: There must be at least one day in the tax year under consideration on which you do >3 hours of work in the UK, and that day is part of the 365-day work period. Essentially, the year of full-time work must overlap with the tax year and include a working day in that year. This prevents someone from claiming UK residency in Year X based on a full-time work period that entirely happened in Year Y.

If you satisfy all these criteria, you are automatically a UK resident due to full-time work in the UK. Notably, this test can sometimes catch people by surprise – for example, those who start a job in the UK mid-year and assume they won’t be resident because they don’t spend that many days in the UK. If that job is full-time and continues into the next year, they might inadvertently meet this test.

If none of the automatic UK tests apply to you (and earlier you didn’t meet any automatic overseas tests), then your residency will hinge on the more complex Sufficient Ties Test. We turn to that next.

The Sufficient Ties Test (Day-Tie Nexus)

The “sufficient ties” test is the third and final part of the SRT, used only if your status hasn’t been determined by the automatic tests above. In this test, you consider two factors together: the number of days you spend in the UK and the number of ties (connections) you have to the UK. The logic is intuitive: the more ties you have with the UK, the fewer days you can spend here before being considered resident. Conversely, if you have very few ties, you are allowed more time in the UK without triggering residency. This test effectively creates a sliding scale of day-count thresholds that depend on your personal ties.

Importantly, the thresholds differ depending on whether you are an “Arriver” or a “Leaver.”

• Arriver: You are an arriver if you were not UK resident in any of the 3 previous tax years. In other words, you’re new (or returning after a long break) to UK tax residence. Generally, the rules are a bit more lenient for arrivers – you can spend more days with fewer ties and still be non-resident.
• Leaver: You are a leaver if you were UK resident in one or more of the 3 previous tax years. So, you have a recent history of UK residence. The test is stricter for leavers – it assumes it’s harder to relinquish UK residency once you’ve recently had it. In fact, for leavers there is an additional tie (the country tie, explained below) that must be considered.

First, let's define the five types of UK ties that the SRT considers:

1. Family Tie

You have immediate family who are UK-resident. Specifically, a spouse or civil partner (or de facto partner) who is UK resident, or a minor child (under 18) who is UK resident, will count as a family tie. (Note: Only living arrangements count – if you’re separated from a spouse, that tie might not count, and adult children don’t count.) There are two key exceptions to prevent unfairness in certain cases:

• If you have a child under 18 in the UK solely for full-time education (e.g. at a boarding school), and the child spends less than 21 days in the UK outside of term time, then that child does not count as a tie. Essentially, sending your child to a UK school doesn’t, by itself, drag you into UK residency, provided the child only stays for school and goes abroad during holidays.
• If you spend very limited time with a child in the UK, it might not count. HMRC’s guidance says the family tie is disregarded if you see your child in the UK on fewer than 61 days in total during the tax year. This prevents a fleeting visit to see your child from automatically triggering a tie. Similarly, if both you and your spouse/partner are trying to determine residency and each would only be tied via the other, the tie can be ignored for both to avoid circular logic.

2. Accommodation Tie

You have accessible accommodation in the UK. This means there is a place to live in the UK that is available to you for a continuous period of ≥91 days in the year, and you spend at least one night there. "Available" can include a house or flat you own or lease, or even a place owned by friends or relatives if you can use it regularly. It doesn’t include hotels or short-term lodgings (staying in a hotel for a couple weeks wouldn’t count as having UK accommodation). However, note that even a holiday home in the UK counts as available accommodation if you keep it for 91+ days and use it. There is an exception for brief stays with relatives: you can stay at the home of a close relative (e.g. parents, siblings) for up to 15 nights in the year without it counting as an accommodation tie. So, visiting family for a couple of weeks doesn’t on its own create this tie, unless you exceed 15 nights at their home. Beyond that, or if you have your own place, it likely counts. Essentially, if you maintain a place to live in the UK (or have unfettered access to one), you have an accommodation tie.

3. Work Tie

You have substantial work in the UK, defined as working ≥ 40 days in the UK in the tax year, where each of those days involves >3 hours of work. This counts employment or self-employment. The 40 days need not be consecutive. If you have a UK-based consulting contract, or you regularly do remote work from the UK, or business travel that includes working days in Britain, and it adds up to 40 or more days of >3 hours work, that’s a work tie. (Note: For many people on international assignments, this is a tie that’s easy to acquire if they come back for business frequently. Monitoring your UK workdays is key because even a few trips can add up to 40 days surprisingly fast.)

4. 90-Day Tie

You have a history of spending time in the UK – specifically, you spent more than 90 days in the UK in either of the previous two tax years. This tie looks back at recent years: if in either of the last two years you were in the UK for >90 days, then for the current year you have a 90-day tie. Essentially, this captures a pattern of substantial presence. For example, if this year is 2025–26 and you spent 100 days in the UK in 2023–24 (even if you were non-resident that year), that history gives you a tie for 2025–26. It’s a way of saying “you’ve been spending a lot of time here recently.” (If you were fully outside the UK the last two years, you won’t have this tie.)

5. Country Tie

This tie applies only if you were UK resident in one of the previous 3 years, i.e., to leavers. The country tie means that in the current tax year, the UK is the country where you spent the greatest number of days compared to any other single country. In other words, the UK is your top destination that year. To determine this, you compare day counts: how many days did I spend in the UK versus in France, versus in any other country? If the UK is higher than each one individually, you have a country tie. (If there’s a tie for highest, or another country exceeds UK, then you don’t have this tie.) This tie makes it harder for recent departers to shake off residency if they still spend more time in the UK than anywhere else, even if that UK time isn’t a majority of the year. For example, imagine you left the UK and split your time among several countries – 70 days in UK, 60 in France, 60 in Spain. The UK is the single highest, so that’s a country tie. Arrivers (no recent UK residence) do not consider this tie at all – it’s simply not applicable to them.

Now that we have the ties defined, the SRT provides a day count vs. ties matrix to determine residency. The rule is: given your number of UK days in the year and whether you’re an arriver or leaver, do you have “sufficient” ties to be resident? The fewer days you spend in the UK, the more ties are needed to tip you into residency; conversely, the more days you spend, the fewer ties are needed. The exact thresholds are as follows:

Arrivers (not UK resident in last 3 years)

• 0–45 days: Always non-resident. This is effectively the second automatic overseas test: <46 days ensures non-residency.
• 46–90 days: UK resident only if all 4 ties are present. If you have 0–3 ties, you remain non-resident at this level of presence.
• 91–120 days: UK resident if at least 3 ties are present (with 0–2 ties, non-resident).
• 121–182 days: UK resident if at least 2 ties are present (with 0–1 tie, non-resident).
• 183+ days: In practice, you’d be caught by the 183-day automatic test already, so residency is definite.

Leavers (UK resident in at least one of last 3 years)

• 0–15 days: Always non-resident. This aligns with the first automatic overseas test: <16 days guarantees non-residency.
• 16–45 days: UK resident if 4 or more ties (leavers can have up to 5 ties because the country tie is in play). If you have 0–3 ties, you remain non-resident with this few days.
• 46–90 days: UK resident if at least 3 ties (0–2 ties would mean non-resident at this range).
• 91–120 days: UK resident if at least 2 ties.
• 121–182 days: UK resident if at least 1 tie. In other words, if you spend more than 4 months in the UK and have any connection at all to the UK (family, home, work, etc.), you will be resident. Only someone with zero ties could spend up to 182 days and avoid residency – a scenario unlikely for a recent ex-resident.
• 183+ days: Always resident (via automatic test).

These rules make it tougher for leavers to claim non-residence. For example, a leaver with 3 ties needs to stay under 46 days to be sure of non-residence, whereas an arriver with 3 ties could spend up to 120 days and still be non-resident. This asymmetry reflects the UK tax authority’s view that giving up residency (for someone with established UK links) requires more drastic reduction in UK presence than never becoming resident in the first place.

As the examples illustrate, the sufficient ties test is a balancing act between days and ties. It’s deliberately designed to be stricter on those who recently lived in the UK (they have the extra country tie and lower day allowances for a given number of ties). Newcomers get a bit more leeway. In any case, if you find yourself in this part of the SRT, it's wise to document your ties and travel days meticulously. HMRC expects you to self-assess your residency based on these rules, and in close cases, solid records (travel itineraries, calendars, etc.) are essential to support your position.

Conclusion

The Statutory Residence Test provides a structured (if intricate) way to determine UK tax residency. In summary, spend enough days in the UK (183+) or have your life center on the UK (only home, full-time work here), and you’re a resident. Conversely, spend very few days (under 16 or 46 depending on history) or work full-time abroad, and you’re safely non-resident. In the middle ground, it comes down to your ties. For tax advisors and internationally mobile individuals (such as expatriate employees or cross-border workers between the UK and France), the SRT is a critical tool. It’s important not only to apply the tests step-by-step, but also to understand the definitions – e.g. what counts as a workday, how a “home” is defined, or how seemingly minor visits can accumulate into a tie.

Always remember that residency is assessed each tax year. One year you might be non-resident, the next year circumstances might make you resident. The SRT doesn’t "lock-in" a status permanently; it responds to the facts each year. If you are close to the thresholds, plan ahead. For example, if you’re leaving the UK, plan your departures and limit return visits (especially in the early years) to avoid tipping back into residency. Likewise, if you’re arriving or returning to the UK, be mindful that increasing ties (buying a home, moving family over, etc.) lowers the day count at which you become resident.

In practice, many people will find their status determined by the straightforward tests at the top (few days or many days). But for those “edge cases” in between, the ties test is where professional advice is often needed. The SRT is detailed (the legislation and HMRC guidance run over 100 pages), but with careful record-keeping and awareness of the criteria, one can manage their UK residency status with much more certainty than in the past. Always consult the latest HMRC guidance or a tax professional if unsure – the cost of getting it wrong can be significant, as residency status affects your liability to UK taxes on worldwide income and gains. By drilling down into each test and definition as we’ve done here, accountants and legal professionals can better navigate the SRT and guide their clients (or themselves) through the complexities of UK tax residency.

Finally, this article has not covered one important feature of UK residence: the split year rules, which apply in years when you arrive in or leave the UK. These rules are complex and deserve separate treatment, so we have addressed them in a dedicated article, which you can find here.