United Kingdom — Statutory Residence Test (April 6 Tax Year)

Summary

Common limit

90 days

Configurable bands

15 / 45 / 90 / 120 / 182 days

Window

UK tax year, 6 April–5 April

Direction

Days spent in the UK

Authority

HMRC (RDR3)

Under the UK Statutory Residence Test (SRT), there is no single day limit. How many days you can spend in the UK before becoming tax resident depends on your personal ties to the country, and falls into one of five bands: 15, 45, 90, 120 or 182 days in a tax year. The most common case is 90 days — for example an “Arriver” with 3 UK ties, or a “Leaver” with 2 ties. The tax year runs 6 April to 5 April. To stay non-resident on this path, keep your UK days at or below your applicable band.

Whatever the test concludes, you report it yourself on the residence pages of your Self Assessment return — see what the SA109 form is for who has to file them and which day counts they ask for.

Who it applies to

This matters most if you are:

• A remote worker, digital nomad, or frequent traveler splitting time between the UK and abroad.
• A British expat who has left the UK but still returns regularly for family, work, or property.
• Someone moving to or from the UK mid-year, where the count and your ties both shift.
• An international worker or investor trying to avoid becoming UK tax resident by accident.

The SRT applies to individuals regardless of nationality — residency here turns on presence and ties, not citizenship or visa status.

The rule — and why it exists

The SRT is worked in a fixed order, and the first test that gives a clear answer decides your residency:

1. 1Automatic overseas tests — meet one (e.g. very few UK days, or full-time work abroad) and you are non-resident, full stop.
2. 2Automatic UK tests — meet one (e.g. 183+ UK days, your only home in the UK, or full-time UK work) and you are resident.
3. 3Sufficient Ties Test — if neither is decisive, your residency depends on combining UK days with your number of ties.

The five day bands come from that last step. HMRC’s bands begin at 16, 46, 91, 121 and 183 days, so the highest safe count — the day you must not exceed — is one below each: 15, 45, 90, 120 or 182 days. More ties means a lower band.

Why it exists: before 2013 the UK relied on vague case law and HMRC practice, which made residency unpredictable. The SRT replaced that with a rules-based test so that day count and concrete connections — family, accommodation, work, history — decide residency in a way people can plan around. The full framework is set out in HMRC guidance RDR3.

Statutory residence test flowchart

HMRC’s RDR3 guidance works the test as ordered steps; read as a flowchart, they are yes/no questions worked strictly in order. Answer them top to bottom for the tax year you are checking; stop at the first question that settles it. The three steps — the automatic overseas tests, the automatic UK tests and the sufficient ties test — are set out in turn below.

Step 1 — Automatic overseas tests

Any “yes” here makes you non-resident for the year, whatever your ties or homes.

1. 1Were you UK resident in one or more of the previous 3 tax years AND in the UK fewer than 16 days this year?
2. 2Were you non-resident in all of the previous 3 tax years AND in the UK fewer than 46 days this year?
3. 3Did you work full-time overseas (35+ hours a week on average) with fewer than 91 UK days and fewer than 31 UK workdays?

If any answer is yes you are not UK resident — stop here.

The 16-day and 46-day tests are pure midnight counts; the third test adds a 30-workday limb and a “no significant break” condition that a day counter cannot see (see the 90-day cap for full-time work abroad below). For each test in detail, with the midnight rule, the transit exception, the deeming rule and worked examples, read what the automatic overseas tests are.

Step 2 — Automatic UK tests

Reached only if none of the automatic overseas tests is met. Any “yes” here makes you resident for the year, before ties or day bands are considered.

1. 1Were you in the UK 183 days or more?
2. 2Did you have a home in the UK for at least 91 consecutive days, spend at least 30 days there, and have no overseas home you used for 30+ days?
3. 3Did you work full-time in the UK for a 365-day period with no significant break, with more than 75% of workdays in the UK?

If any answer is yes you are UK resident — stop here.

The second test — the “only home” test — is the one that surprises people: it can make you resident with as few as 30 days’ presence at that home if the UK is where your only home is. The third is the mirror of the full-time-work-overseas test, with the same three-hour workday definition. Because the overseas tests are taken first, anyone who has already passed one of them never reaches this step; the automatic overseas tests page explains how the two sets of tests order against each other.

Step 3 — Sufficient ties test

Reached only if neither set of automatic tests settles the year. Residence now depends on combining your UK days with your number of ties — more ties, fewer days.

Count your ties — family, accommodation, work (40+ UK workdays), 90-day (more than 90 UK days in either of the two previous years), and, for Leavers only, the country tie (more days in the UK than anywhere else). Then read your band:

• Arriver (non-resident in all 3 previous years): resident if 46–90 days with 4 ties, 91–120 days with 3 ties, or 121–182 days with 2 ties.
• Leaver (resident in any of the 3 previous years): resident if 16–45 days with 4 ties, 46–90 days with 3 ties, 91–120 days with 2 ties, or 121–182 days with 1 tie.

Below those combinations you are non-resident. Our UK Statutory Residence Test calculator walks the same three steps from your trips and ties. If you arrive in or leave the UK part-way through a year, see split year treatment — it can divide that year into a resident and a non-resident part.

The exact definition of each tie — the 61-day and 21-day carve-outs for children in the family tie, the 91-day availability and 16-night close-relative rules for accommodation, the 40-workday threshold for the work tie, the “more than 90 days in either of the previous two years” wording of the 90-day tie, and the Leaver-only country tie — together with both band tables and worked examples is on what the sufficient ties test is.

Counting the days

1. 1Count a day if you are present in the UK at the end of it (at midnight).
2. 2Departure days where you leave before midnight generally do not count.
3. 3Measure across the UK tax year, 6 April to 5 April — not the calendar year.
4. 4Reach your band's trigger day (16, 46, 91, 121 or 183) and you can become UK tax resident for that year.

The midnight rule is the key difference from many countries’ “any part of a day” tests. A special deeming rule can also count some daytime-only visits if you have several ties and prior UK presence, so check RDR3 if you make frequent short trips. To run the whole decision on your own numbers — days, ties, and the automatic tests — use the free Statutory Residence Test calculator.

The 90-day cap for full-time work abroad

Most people who set a 90-day UK cap are relying on the sufficient-ties table. But there is a second route to 90 days — the third automatic overseas test — and it carries a limit no day counter can see. If your plan is “I work full-time abroad, so I get 90 UK days,” this section is for you.

Paragraph 14 of Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013 sets four conditions, all of which must hold:

1. 1You work sufficient hours overseas, assessed over the tax year.
2. 2There are no significant breaks from that overseas work during the year.
3. 3The number of days on which you do more than 3 hours' work in the UK is less than 31 — at most 30 UK workdays.
4. 4The number of qualifying days spent in the UK is less than 91 — at most 90 days of presence.

HMRC’s Residence and FIG Regime Manual states the same two figures in terms: “the number of days in the relevant tax year on which the individual does more than 3 hours work in the UK is less than 31” and the individual “spends less than 91 days in the UK in the relevant year”. So the answer to the question people actually ask — 30 or 31? — is 30. The 31st UK workday breaks the test.

Two limbs, counted differently

• Presence days generally require you to be in the UK at the end of the day — the midnight rule.
• Workdays require more than three hours’ work in the UK on that day. Midnight is irrelevant: fly in for a morning meeting, work four hours and fly out at 6pm, and you have added a workday without adding a presence day.
• Deemed days are excluded from the 91. Paragraph 14(2)(b) expressly removes days treated as UK days under the paragraph 23(4) deeming rule from this test’s presence count — a carve-out specific to this test.

A counter tracks presence days. It cannot see how many hours you worked, so the workday limb is yours to keep. If your 90-day cap rests on full-time work abroad, keep a parallel record of UK workdays and treat 30 as the hard number.

Examples

Example 1 — the common 90-day case

You’re an Arriver with a UK home available to you, close family in the UK, and UK work — three ties. That puts you in the 90-day band, so a 91st UK day in the tax year can make you resident. Staying at or below 90 keeps you non-resident on this path.

Example 2 — a tight band for a recent leaver

You left the UK last year but still have four ties and a strong recent history here. As a Leaver with four ties you are in the 15-day band (45 with three ties) — so even a few weeks of visits could tip you back into UK residency. The more ties, the fewer days you get.

Example 3 — few ties, wide margin

You have no UK home, no UK family, and don’t work in the UK — one tie at most. You’d likely be in the 120- or 182-day band, giving far more room before residency is triggered. But note the automatic UK test: hit 183 days and you’re resident regardless of ties.

Exceptions & edge cases

• Automatic tests come first. The bands only matter if neither the automatic overseas nor the automatic UK tests settle your residency — for example, having your only home in the UK can make you resident with very few days.
• The deeming rule. If you have three or more ties and have been UK resident recently, some daytime-only visits can count toward your total even though you weren’t here at midnight.
• Split-year treatment. In the year you arrive or leave, the tax year can sometimes be split into resident and non-resident parts, changing what income is taxable — see UK split year treatment for the eight cases.
• Exceptional circumstances. Up to 60 days forced on you by events beyond your control (such as a serious illness or a national emergency) may be disregarded from your count.
• Double-taxation treaties. If you’re resident in two countries, the relevant treaty tie-breaker assigns a single treaty residence and divides taxing rights — but it doesn’t erase UK domestic residency.

Common misconceptions

• “The UK limit is 90 days.” Only for some people. Your band could be as low as 15 or as high as 182 days depending on ties and history.
• “It’s measured over the calendar year.” No — the SRT uses the tax year, 6 April to 5 April.
• “Every day I set foot in the UK counts.” Usually only days where you’re in the UK at midnight count, subject to the deeming rule.
• “Staying under my band guarantees non-residency.” Not if an automatic UK test applies first — those can make you resident before ties are even considered.
• “Working abroad gives me 90 UK days, full stop.” It gives you at most 90 presence days and at most 30 UK workdays, with no significant break from the overseas work. Blow the workday limb and the whole test fails, however few days you spent here.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Finance Act 2013, Schedule 45 — the Statutory Residence Test (para 14: third automatic overseas test)
• HMRC — Residence and FIG Regime Manual, RFIG20140 (automatic overseas tests)
• HMRC — RDR3: Statutory Residence Test (SRT)
• GOV.UK — Tax on foreign income: UK residence and tax