The statutory residence test (SRT) for UK expats in the UAE
A UAE residence visa and a Dubai address do not decide your UK tax residence. The statutory residence test does — and it turns on day counts and ties that are easy to get wrong.
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A common assumption among British people who move to the UAE is that leaving the UK ends their UK tax residence. Often it does. But residence is not decided by where you live, where you have a visa or where you hold a tax residency certificate. For UK purposes it is decided by the statutory residence test (SRT), in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013, applied to each UK tax year (6 April to 5 April).
Getting it wrong matters in both directions. Someone who believes they are non-resident, but is not, has worldwide income and gains within UK tax. Someone who is non-resident still has UK tax on UK income such as rent, and on some UK gains.
This guide sets out how the test works, in the order the legislation applies it. For the rules as they apply to anyone leaving or arriving in the UK, see our general guide to the statutory residence test.
How the test is structured
The test is applied in three stages, and you stop at the first one that gives an answer:
- Automatic overseas tests. Meet any one, and you are non-UK resident for the year.
- Automatic UK tests. Meet any one (and none of the overseas tests), and you are UK resident.
- Sufficient ties test. If neither set of automatic tests settles it, residence depends on how many days you spent in the UK and how many “ties” you have to it.
What counts as a day
You are generally treated as spending a day in the UK if you are here at midnight at the end of that day. There are limited exceptions for passengers in transit and for exceptional circumstances beyond your control (up to 60 days a year).
There is also an anti-avoidance rule for people who arrive and leave on the same day repeatedly. If you were UK resident in at least one of the previous three tax years, have at least three ties, and spend more than 30 days in the UK without being here at midnight, days beyond the thirtieth can be counted anyway.
A reliable day count — travel records, boarding passes, passport stamps — is the foundation of any residence position. HMRC can and does ask for it.
The automatic overseas tests
You are automatically non-UK resident for a tax year if any of these applies:
- Fewer than 16 days in the UK, where you were UK resident in one or more of the previous three tax years.
- Fewer than 46 days in the UK, where you were not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years.
- Full-time work overseas. You work sufficient hours overseas (broadly an average of 35 hours a week, calculated over the year with allowances for leave and gaps), without a significant break, while spending fewer than 91 days in the UK and working in the UK for more than three hours on fewer than 31 days.
For many British people employed full-time in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, the third test is the one that settles it. Its conditions are precise, though: the hours calculation, the treatment of leave, and what counts as a day of UK work (answering emails on a visit home can count) are where claims tend to fail.
The automatic UK tests
If no overseas test is met, you are automatically UK resident if:
- you spend 183 days or more in the UK in the tax year; or
- your only home is in the UK (or you have a UK home and no overseas home, or not one you spend enough time in), under detailed conditions; or
- you work full-time in the UK for a period of 365 days, under detailed conditions.
The home test catches people who keep their UK home and only rent in the UAE on short terms.
The sufficient ties test
If neither set of automatic tests applies, the answer depends on your UK days and your ties. The ties are:
- Family tie — a spouse, civil partner, cohabiting partner or minor child who is UK resident (with some exceptions for children in UK education).
- Accommodation tie — a place in the UK available to you for at least 91 consecutive days in the year, where you spend at least one night. A close relative’s home (a parent, grandparent, sibling, or adult child or grandchild) counts only if you spend 16 or more nights there.
- Work tie — working in the UK for more than three hours on at least 40 days.
- 90-day tie — spending more than 90 days in the UK in either of the previous two tax years.
- Country tie — the UK is the country where you spent the most midnights in the year. This tie applies only to “leavers”: people who were UK resident in any of the previous three years.
The number of ties that makes you UK resident falls as your UK days rise:
| Days in the UK | Leavers (UK resident in any of the previous 3 years) | Arrivers (not UK resident in any of them) |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 16 | Always non-resident | Always non-resident |
| 16 to 45 | Resident with 4 or more ties | Always non-resident |
| 46 to 90 | Resident with 3 or more ties | Resident with all 4 ties |
| 91 to 120 | Resident with 2 or more ties | Resident with 3 or more ties |
| 121 to 182 | Resident with 1 or more ties | Resident with 2 or more ties |
| 183 or more | Always resident | Always resident |
A leaver who keeps a family home in the UK, with a spouse and children still living there, may start the year with two or three ties before counting a single day. For that person the margin of UK days is much smaller than they tend to assume.
The year you leave: split-year treatment
Residence is decided for a whole tax year, which would make the year of departure awkward. Split-year treatment can divide that year into a UK part and an overseas part, so that income arising after departure is not taxed as a UK resident’s. It is only available where one of the specific cases in the legislation applies — leaving to work full-time overseas is the most common — and each case has conditions. It is not a choice: if the conditions of a case are met, it applies. It is shown on the residence pages (SA109) of the Self Assessment return.
Coming back within five years
Non-residence that turns out to be short can be partly unwound. Under the temporary non-residence rules, someone who was solely UK resident in at least four of the seven tax years before leaving, and whose period of non-residence is five years or less, may be taxed on their return on certain gains and income received while abroad — for example, gains on assets they held before leaving. Anyone planning a significant disposal while in the UAE should check this before relying on non-residence.
The UAE side
The UAE’s own tax residency certificate does not decide UK residence. The UK and the UAE have a double tax treaty, and its tie-breaker rules can matter where someone is resident in both countries under their domestic rules — but the treaty allocates taxing rights, it does not remove UK filing obligations, and it is only reached once the UK position has been worked out.
Sources
- Finance Act 2013, Schedule 45 (statutory residence test, split-year treatment and temporary non-residence)
- HMRC, RDR3: Statutory Residence Test guidance
- UK–UAE Double Taxation Convention (2016)
This guide is general information, not advice on any particular case.