Becoming non-resident in the UK

When you are really gone for HMRC

The statutory residence test (SRT) looks at each tax year on its own. The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, so you can be resident one year and not the next. The day you leave decides nothing by itself. How the test works as a whole is explained in UK tax residence.

For leavers the automatic overseas tests count most. If you were resident in at least one of the three previous years, you are non-resident if you spend fewer than 16 days in the UK in the tax year. If you go abroad for a full-time job, the third test does it: full-time work abroad over the tax year, fewer than 91 days in the UK and fewer than 31 days with more than three hours' work in the UK, with no significant break from work abroad.

If none of these applies, you count ties. As a former resident you need fewer of them to stay resident than a newcomer does to become resident, and you also check the country tie. Spend 183 days or more in the UK and you stay resident anyway.

Split year: the cut in the year you leave

In the year you leave you are usually still resident under the SRT. So that the whole year does not stay taxable in the UK, there is split year treatment: the year is divided into a UK part and an overseas part. On leaving, cases 1 to 3 are the candidates.

Case 1 applies if you start full-time work abroad. Case 2 covers your partner who follows you abroad for it. Case 3 is the classic move: you give up your UK home, then spend fewer than 16 days in the UK and become tax resident in the new country within six months (or meet the presence or home condition there). Each case has its own conditions, and all must be met. The details are in split year treatment.

Important for planning: split year treatment requires you to be non-resident the following year. If you leave in the autumn and come back for a few weeks in the spring, count the days beforehand.

What stays taxable in the UK

As a non-resident you pay no UK tax on income and gains from abroad. UK income, however, generally stays taxable. The four big items are rent, property gains, work in the UK and pensions.

UK rent: if you live abroad for six months or more a year, you are a non-resident landlord. The letting agent or tenant then deducts tax at the basic rate, unless HMRC approves gross payment with settlement through Self Assessment. Without an agent, the tenant deducts if the rent is more than £100 a week. Note: in Budget 2026 of 28 October 2026 the government announced that rates on property income in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will rise from 6 April 2027 to 24, 44 and 49 percent; the legislation follows in the Finance Bill 2026-27. The procedure is in the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme.

UK property on sale: gains on UK property and land stay taxable. Every disposal must be reported, even with no tax and even at a loss, within 60 days of completion. Tax treaties do not help with gains on UK residential property. More in selling UK property as a non-resident. UK shares, by contrast, you can sell as a non-resident without UK capital gains tax.

Work in the UK: if you live abroad and keep working in the UK for a UK employer, tax is worked out on the days you work in the UK. UK pensions: occupational and private pensions from the UK are in principle taxable in the UK; under the tax treaty with your new country of residence you can claim relief for most pensions. Most public service pensions stay taxable only in the UK. The UK generally does not tax non-residents on the State Pension.

UK interest and dividends are mostly harmless for non-residents: HMRC limits the tax on this investment income to whatever was deducted at source. That limit does not apply in the overseas part of a split year, nor to rents. How the UK's treaties share the rest is in the UK's tax treaties.

Temporary non-residence: the five-year trap

Leave the UK, take some gains, then come back, and the temporary non-residence rules spoil the arithmetic. They apply if you were solely UK resident in at least four of the seven tax years before the year you leave and your absence lasts five years or less. The only way out is more than five years: five years and one day.

Come back sooner and HMRC taxes certain income and gains from your time abroad in the year you return, as if they arose in that year. They include capital gains, certain pension payments and lump sums, distributions from close companies (typically your own limited company), offshore income gains from funds and chargeable event gains from life policies.

In practice: if you empty your UK company through dividends from abroad or sell a large portfolio and return after three years, you pay in the UK after all. That holds even if your new country has already taxed the gains; then it is a question of credit for the tax paid there.

Inheritance tax: the long shadow

Since 6 April 2025 UK inheritance tax no longer hangs on domicile but on long-term UK residence. You are a long-term resident if you were UK resident in at least 10 of the last 20 tax years. Then your foreign assets can fall into inheritance tax too.

That status does not end when you move. It can carry on for up to 10 tax years; if you lived in the UK for a shorter time, you are out sooner. After 10 to 13 years in the UK it ends three years after you leave, after 15 years five years after. If you come back after ten years of continuous absence, the count starts again. The background is in our piece on UK inheritance tax.

Once the shadow has passed, your UK assets stay in the net anyway: if you live abroad, you pay inheritance tax on UK assets such as a property or a UK bank account. The standard rate is 40 percent on the part above the £325,000 nil-rate band. An ISA counts as part of the estate for inheritance tax too.

ISA, pensions and National Insurance after you leave

ISA: you may keep your ISA, and the UK tax exemption on it stays. As a non-resident you can no longer pay in, and you must tell your provider that you are no longer UK resident. The UK exemption only applies in the UK; how your new country sees the income is down to its law.

Pensions: your UK pension stays where it is. How withdrawals are taxed after you leave is set by the relevant tax treaty. Lump sums within the first five years can fall under the temporary non-residence rules.

National Insurance: new rules for periods abroad have applied since 6 April 2026. Voluntary Class 2 contributions for periods abroad are gone from the 2026/27 tax year. Voluntary Class 3 contributions for periods after 5 April 2026 are only possible if you previously lived in the UK for ten continuous years or paid ten qualifying years in all. The 2026/27 rate is £18.40 a week; you can pay for the last six years. For a State Pension you usually need at least ten qualifying years.

Sources: HMRC: RDR3 Statutory Residence Test (SRT) notes; HMRC Residence and FIG regime manual: Split year, Case 1 (RFIG21040); HMRC Residence and FIG regime manual: Split year, Case 3 (RFIG21130); HMRC Residence and FIG regime manual: Temporary non-residence (RFIG21510, RFIG21560); GOV.UK: Tax if you leave the UK to live abroad; GOV.UK: Get your Income Tax right if you're leaving the UK (P85); GOV.UK: Tax on your UK income if you live abroad; HMRC: HS300 Non-residents and investment income (2026); GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax on UK property or land if you're not a UK resident; HM Treasury: Budget 2026; GOV.UK: Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident; GOV.UK: How Inheritance Tax works; GOV.UK: Individual Savings Accounts, if you move abroad; GOV.UK: Voluntary National Insurance