What is the sufficient ties test?

Where the test sits in the SRT

The Statutory Residence Test has three stages, taken in order. First the automatic overseas tests: meet one and you are non-resident. Then the automatic UK tests — 183 or more UK days, your only home in the UK, or full-time UK work: meet one and you are resident. The sufficient ties test is what decides the case for everyone left over, which in practice means most people who split their year between the UK and somewhere else.

The mechanism is a sliding scale. The more ties you have to the UK, the fewer days you can spend here before you are resident. Someone with no ties can stay up to 182 days; a Leaver with four ties becomes resident on the 16th.

The five UK ties

Each tie is defined precisely in RDR3. You either have it for the tax year or you do not.

1. Family tie

You have a family tie if, at any time in the year, someone who is UK resident for that year is your spouse or civil partner (unless you are separated), your partner you live with as if married, or your child under 18. Two carve-outs for children: a child you see in the UK on fewer than 61 days in the year does not create a tie, and a child who is UK resident only because they are in full-time education here is ignored provided they spend fewer than 21 days in the UK outside term time.

2. Accommodation tie

You have an accommodation tie if you have a place to live in the UK that is available to you for a continuous period of at least 91 days in the year, and you spend at least one night there. Gaps in availability of fewer than 16 days are ignored, so a flat you can use whenever you like counts even if you are rarely in it. If the accommodation is the home of a close relative — a parent, grandparent, sibling, or adult child — you need to spend at least 16 nights there before it becomes a tie. It does not have to be owned by you: a rented flat, a partner’s house, or a hotel room booked for the whole period can all qualify.

3. Work tie

You have a work tie if you work in the UK for more than three hours on at least 40 days in the tax year. The days do not have to be consecutive and it does not matter whether you were in the UK at midnight — a morning meeting in London followed by an evening flight home is a UK workday. Forty is a hard threshold: 39 such days is no tie, 40 is a tie.

4. 90-day tie

You have a 90-day tie if you spent more than 90 days in the UK in either or both of the two previous tax years. Note the wording: more than 90, so 91 or more midnights in either year. This tie is entirely historical — nothing you do in the current year changes it — and it is the one people most often forget, because it follows you for two years after a year with heavy UK presence.

5. Country tie (Leavers only)

Only people who were UK resident in one or more of the three previous tax years can have a country tie. You have it if the UK is the country in which you were present at midnight on the greatest number of days in the tax year. If the UK ties with another country for first place, you still have the tie. Arrivers cannot have a country tie, which is why they have at most four ties and a shorter table.

The day bands: Arrivers and Leavers

Your day count is measured across the UK tax year, 6 April to 5 April, on the midnight rule. Which table you use depends on your history: an Arriver was non-resident in all three previous tax years; a Leaver was resident in at least one of them.

Arrivers — not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years

• Fewer than 46 days: always non-resident (the second automatic overseas test).
• 46 to 90 days: resident if you have all 4 ties.
• 91 to 120 days: resident if you have at least 3 ties.
• 121 to 182 days: resident if you have at least 2 ties.
• 183 days or more: always resident (the first automatic UK test).

Leavers — UK resident in one or more of the previous three tax years

• Fewer than 16 days: always non-resident (the first automatic overseas test).
• 16 to 45 days: resident if you have at least 4 ties.
• 46 to 90 days: resident if you have at least 3 ties.
• 91 to 120 days: resident if you have at least 2 ties.
• 121 to 182 days: resident if you have at least 1 tie.
• 183 days or more: always resident (the first automatic UK test).

Read the other way round, the tables give you a safe day limit for a given number of ties. A Leaver with two ties, for example, is resident from 91 days, so their limit is 90; an Arriver with two ties is resident from 121 days, so their limit is 120. Those are the 15, 45, 90, 120 and 182-day bands the main SRT article is built around.

Worked examples

• Arriver with a London flat and a job. Sofia has never been UK resident. In the year she rents a flat for twelve months (accommodation tie), works in the London office on 55 days (work tie), and spends 100 midnights in the UK. Two ties at 91–120 days: an Arriver needs three, so she is non-resident. Add a UK-resident partner and she has three ties and is resident.
• Leaver who kept the house. James moved to Dubai in April. His family stayed in the UK (family tie) in the family home he still owns (accommodation tie), and he spent 150 midnights in the UK last year (90-day tie). Unless his Dubai job satisfies the full-time-work-overseas test first, he is judged on ties. Three ties as a Leaver: the 46–90 band applies, so he is resident from his 46th UK day. Most people in his position assume they have 90.
• The country tie tips it. Aisha left the UK two years ago and spends the year moving between Lisbon, Berlin and London with no fixed base. She has 110 UK midnights, no family in the UK, no available accommodation, 20 UK workdays, and 60 UK days in each of the previous two years — no tie on any of those. But 110 midnights in the UK is more than she spent in any other single country, so she has a country tie. One tie at 91–120 days is not enough (two needed), so she is non-resident — but at 121 midnights one tie would have been sufficient.
• Forty workdays. Tom, an Arriver, spends 95 midnights in the UK and commutes in for 38 days of meetings, with a UK home available and a UK-resident spouse. Two ties: non-resident. Two more meeting days and he has a work tie, three ties, and is resident.

The work tie and the 40-day threshold

The work tie is the tie most within your control and the one most often miscounted. Three points from RDR3:

• “Work” is broad. It covers employment and self-employment, and includes travelling time where the journey cost would be a deductible expense or you work en route, and employer-provided training related to the job. Answering emails for ten minutes does not make a workday; three hours and one minute does.
• Workdays and UK days are counted differently. A UK day needs you here at midnight; a UK workday needs more than three hours’ work here at any time. A day trip adds a workday but no UK day; a weekend visit adds two UK days but no workdays.
• The same count feeds the third automatic overseas test, where the limit is 30 UK workdays, not 40. Someone working full-time abroad who reaches 31 UK workdays loses that test; at 40 they also gain a work tie.

How to keep count

1. 1Log every UK arrival and departure so you can count midnights across 6 April to 5 April, and keep the previous two years' totals for the 90-day tie.
2. 2Flag each day on which you did more than three hours' work in the UK — you need the total for the work tie and, if you rely on it, for the full-time-work-abroad test.
3. 3Fix your ties at the start of the year (family, accommodation, and whether you are an Arriver or Leaver are usually known in April), then read your band and treat one day below it as your limit.
4. 4Watch the deeming rule: with three or more ties and recent UK residence, daytime-only visits beyond 30 in a year start counting as UK days.
5. 5Report the resulting day count, workday count and number of ties on the residence pages of your return.

Bounded tracks UK midnights automatically and shows the days remaining against the band you set — 15, 45, 90, 120 or 182. The free UK SRT calculator runs the whole three-stage test from trip dates and ties, and the SA109 form is where the answer ends up.

Sources

• HMRC — RDR3: Statutory Residence Test (SRT)
• GOV.UK — Tax on foreign income: UK residence and tax