Statutory Residence Test Calculator

Why residence matters

Whether you are UK resident for a tax year decides how much of your income and gains the UK can tax. A UK resident is generally taxed on worldwide income and gains, while a non-resident is taxed mainly on UK income. The answer is worked out for each tax year separately under the Statutory Residence Test (SRT), and you report the result on the residence pages of your Self Assessment return.

The order of the test

The SRT has three steps and stops at the first conclusive one. First come the automatic overseas tests: if you meet any, you are not UK resident. Next come the automatic UK tests: if you meet any of those, you are UK resident. If neither set decides the year, the sufficient ties test looks at your days in the UK and your connections to the UK.

Automatic overseas tests

You are not UK resident if you were resident in at least one of the previous three tax years and spent fewer than 16 days in the UK. You are also not resident if you were resident in none of the previous three years and spent fewer than 46 days here. The third test covers full-time work overseas across the year: fewer than 91 days in the UK, fewer than 31 days on which you worked more than 3 hours in the UK, and no significant break from your overseas work.

Automatic UK tests

You are UK resident if you spend 183 days or more in the UK in the tax year. You are also resident under the home test if you had a UK home for at least 91 consecutive days, with at least 30 of those days in the tax year, you were present in it for at least 30 days, and you either had no overseas home or were present in any overseas home for fewer than 30 days. The third test covers full-time work in the UK over a 365-day period.

The sufficient ties test

If no automatic test applies, the number of UK ties you need falls as your UK days rise. If you were resident in at least one of the previous three years (a leaver), 16 to 45 days needs four ties, 46 to 90 days needs three, 91 to 120 days needs two and over 120 days needs one. If you were resident in none of them (an arriver), 46 to 90 days needs all four ties, 91 to 120 days needs three and over 120 days needs two.

The five ties

The family tie is a spouse or civil partner (unless you are separated), a partner you live with as if married, or a child under 18 who is UK resident in their own right; a child only counts if you see them in person in the UK on 61 days or more in the year. The accommodation tie is a place to live in the UK, available to you for 91 continuous days or more, where you spent at least one night (16 nights if it is a close relative's home). The work tie is more than 3 hours of work a day on 40 or more days in the UK. The 90-day tie is more than 90 days in the UK in either or both of the previous two tax years. The country tie, which only leavers count, applies if the UK is the country where you were present at midnight on the most days in the year, and a tie for most days still counts.

A worked example

Someone who was UK resident last year spends 100 days in the UK and has a UK family tie and a UK home they can use. As a leaver in the 91 to 120 day band they need two ties and have two, so they are likely UK resident. An arriver with the same 100 days and the same two ties needs three ties, so is likely non-resident.

What this helper does not cover

It does not model split-year treatment (it gives one all-or-nothing answer for the whole tax year), the exceptional-circumstances rule that can reduce your day count, the deeming rule that can add days, the tests that apply in the year of death, the 35-hour averaging in the work tests, the full-time education rule for the family tie, or the detailed definition of a significant break. Days are counted broadly by where you are at midnight, and the helper relies on your own count. Use it to see which test is likely to decide your year, then check the detail with HMRC's guidance or an adviser.