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By the NRIWallah team · Last reviewed: August 2026

UK Statutory Residence Test

Residence is decided by days and ties, not by where you feel you live. This is the test HMRC actually applies.

Residence is decided by days and ties, not by intention. Moving your life to India does not, on its own, make you non-resident in Britain — and people who left years ago are regularly surprised to find they never stopped being UK resident for tax. The test runs in a fixed order: the automatic overseas tests first, and they win outright. Only if none applies do the automatic UK tests, and then the sufficient ties test, come into play.

Your year

6 April to 5 April. A day counts if you were in the UK at midnight.

Only matters for the full-time-work-abroad test, which caps them at 30.

Work and home

"Only home" is the trap for NRIs: keeping a UK flat and no home in India can make you resident on very few days. Once you have a home in India as well, this test cannot apply.

Your UK ties

The more ties you have, the fewer days you can spend before becoming resident.

For this tax year you are

Decided by the .

How the test ran

  1. 1

    Automatic overseas tests

  2. 2

    Automatic UK tests

  3. 3

    Sufficient ties test

The row you fall into is highlighted.

Days in the UKTies neededYou have

Under 46 days an arriver is automatically non-resident, so the table starts there.

Under 16 days a leaver is automatically non-resident, so the table starts there.

If you are resident

You pay UK tax on your worldwide income and gains — including Indian rent, Indian dividends and Indian capital gains — unless you qualify for the four-year foreign income and gains regime, which needs ten consecutive years of prior non-residence. Residence also feeds the ten-of-twenty-years clock for inheritance tax, which is what eventually brings your Indian estate into UK charge.

If you are non-resident

You pay UK tax only on UK income. Foreign income is outside the net — but UK land remains chargeable to capital gains tax whatever your status, and if you return within five years the temporary non-residence rules can pull back gains you realised while away.

The year you actually move

This test gives a whole-year answer, but the year you arrive or leave is usually split into a non-resident part and a resident part, so you are only taxed on foreign income for the portion you were living here. That is split-year treatment, and it has conditions.

The one that catches returning NRIs: you do not get split-year treatment if you live abroad for less than a full tax year before coming back. A short stint in India that straddles the April boundary can leave you UK resident for both years with no split at all.

Follows HMRC's RDR3 guidance on the Statutory Residence Test, including Table A and Table B of the sufficient ties test. Day counts can be reduced for exceptional circumstances and increased by the deeming rule; each tie has detailed qualifying conditions this summary does not reproduce. An indication, not a determination, and not advice.

Common Questions

No, and this is the assumption that costs people most. UK residence is decided by a mechanical test based on days spent in the UK and connections retained there — not by where you consider your life to be, where your visa is, or where you tell people you live. Someone who moved to Bangalore but keeps a flat in Harrow, has children at school in Britain and comes back for eight weeks a year can easily remain UK resident for years, with UK tax due on their Indian salary and Indian rent the entire time.
A fixed one, and it is counter-intuitive. The automatic overseas tests are applied first, and if you meet any of them you are non-resident — full stop. Nothing below can override that, not a UK home, not a UK job, not five ties. Only if you meet none of them do the automatic UK tests apply, and meeting any of those makes you resident. Only if neither set decides it does the sufficient ties test run. Most confusion comes from people checking the UK tests first and concluding they are resident when an overseas test had already settled it the other way.
Three of them. First, you were UK resident in at least one of the previous three tax years and spend fewer than 16 days in the UK. Second, you were resident in none of the previous three tax years and spend fewer than 46 days. Third, you work full-time abroad — averaging at least 35 hours a week — and spend fewer than 91 days in the UK, of which no more than 30 are working days. Note how much harsher the first is than the second: once you have been resident recently, your allowance drops from 46 days to 16.
Also three. Spending 183 or more days in the UK in the tax year. Having your only home in the UK for 91 days or more in a row and staying in it for at least 30 days of the tax year. Or working full-time in the UK for any 365-day period with at least one day falling in the tax year. The middle one is the trap for NRIs specifically: if you keep a UK flat and have not yet established a home in India, “only home” can be satisfied on very few days in the country. Once you have a home in India as well, that test cannot apply to you at all.
It trades days against connections: the more ties you have to the UK, the fewer days you can spend before becoming resident. The ties are family (spouse, partner or minor children resident in the UK), accommodation (a place available to you for 91 days or more that you spent a night in), work (40 or more days working in the UK), and the 90-day tie (90 or more days in the UK in either of the previous two tax years). If you were UK resident in any of the previous three tax years you also have a fifth, the country tie — the UK being where you spent the most days.
Because HMRC treats leavers more strictly than arrivers. If you were UK resident in one or more of the last three tax years you fall under Table A: 16 to 45 days needs four ties, 46 to 90 needs three, 91 to 120 needs two, and over 120 needs just one. If you were resident in none of them you fall under Table B, which is more generous: 46 to 90 days needs all four ties, 91 to 120 needs three, and over 120 needs two — and the country tie is not available to you at all. The same facts can therefore give opposite answers depending purely on your history.
When you move in or out of the UK the tax year is usually divided into a non-resident part and a resident part, so you are only taxed on foreign income for the portion you were actually living here. That is split-year treatment. There is a condition that catches returning NRIs constantly: you do not get it if you live abroad for less than a full tax year before returning to the UK. A short posting to India that straddles the April boundary can leave you UK resident for both years with no split at all, and the foreign income taxed in full.
It happens more often than people expect, because the two countries use different tests over different periods — India’s tax year runs April to March and turns on its own day counts. Where both treat you as resident, the India-UK double taxation agreement contains tie-breaker rules that assign residence to one country based on your permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode and finally nationality. That is a question for an adviser rather than a calculator, but the DTAA estimator covers how income arising in both countries is treated once residence is settled.
Because residence years accumulate. Each tax year you are UK resident counts towards the ten-of-twenty-years test that makes you a long-term resident for inheritance tax — the point at which your worldwide estate, Indian property included, comes into UK charge at 40%. People who believe they left in 2019 but were technically resident until 2022 are three years further along that clock than they think. The inheritance and gift calculator covers what happens once it trips, and moving back to India covers how long it follows you afterwards.
It follows HMRC’s RDR3 guidance faithfully, including both sufficient ties tables, so the structure and thresholds are right. What it cannot do is resolve the detail. Day counts can be reduced for exceptional circumstances and increased by the deeming rule. Each tie has qualifying conditions more involved than a checkbox — “accommodation available to you” and “work” in particular have specific statutory meanings. Treat the output as an indication of where you stand and which test is deciding it, then check the detail with an adviser if the answer is close or the stakes are high.

Close to the line?

If your day count is borderline or you might be resident in both countries, tell us the shape of your year and we’ll point you to someone who can settle it.

Something went wrong. Please email admin@nriwallah.com directly.

Free to use. NRIWallah may receive a referral fee from the professional, never from you — how we make money.

The question every other UK calculator assumes you’ve answered

Almost every piece of UK tax guidance — including the other calculators on this site — begins from the same silent assumption: that you already know whether you are UK resident.

It is a bad assumption, because residence is not something you choose or declare. It is decided by a mechanical test based on how many days you spent in the UK and what you kept there. Where you feel you live, what your visa says, and where you tell people you are based have nothing to do with it.

That gap catches people constantly. Someone who moved to Bangalore but kept a flat in Harrow, has children still at school in Britain, and returns for eight weeks a year can remain UK resident for years — with UK tax due on their Indian salary and Indian rent the whole time, and none of it obvious until HMRC asks.

The order is the part people get wrong

The test runs in a fixed sequence, and it is not the sequence most people assume.

First, the automatic overseas tests. If you meet any one of them you are non-resident, and nothing below can change it — not a UK home, not a UK job, not five ties.

Then the automatic UK tests. Only reached if no overseas test applied. Meeting any one makes you resident.

Finally, the sufficient ties test. Only reached if neither set has decided it.

Most of the confusion comes from checking the UK tests first, finding one that seems to apply, and concluding you are resident when an overseas test had already settled it the other way.

Sixteen days, or forty-six

The first automatic overseas test gives you fewer than 16 days in the UK if you were resident in any of the previous three tax years. The second gives you fewer than 46 days if you were not.

That difference is worth dwelling on. The moment you have been UK resident recently, your allowance collapses from 46 days to 16 — roughly two weeks a year. A single extended family visit can undo it.

The third overseas test is the one most working NRIs rely on: full-time work abroad, averaging at least 35 hours a week, with fewer than 91 UK days of which no more than 30 are working days. Both caps have to hold. Answering emails from your parents’ house in Kochi is fine; taking client calls from London for a month is not.

The “only home” trap

Of the automatic UK tests, one catches NRIs specifically. If your only home is in the UK for 91 days or more in a row, and you stay in it for at least 30 days of the tax year, you are UK resident — regardless of how few days you spent in the country overall.

The word doing the work is only. If you have kept a flat in Britain and have not yet established a home in India, this can make you resident on a very light day count. Once you genuinely have a home in India as well, the test cannot apply to you at all.

Ties trade against days

If neither automatic set decides it, the sufficient ties test balances how long you stayed against what you kept: a family tie, an accommodation tie, a work tie, a 90-day tie, and — only if you were resident in one of the last three tax years — a country tie.

The more ties, the fewer days you get. A leaver with four ties becomes resident at just 16 days. A leaver with one tie has until 120.

And the tables are not symmetrical. Leavers fall under Table A and arrivers under the more generous Table B, so identical facts can produce opposite answers depending purely on your history. The calculator above switches between them and highlights the row you land in.

Why this matters beyond this year’s tax bill

Residence years accumulate. Every tax year you are UK resident counts towards the ten-of-twenty-years test that makes you a long-term resident for inheritance tax — the point at which your worldwide estate, Indian property included, falls into UK charge at 40%.

Someone who believes they left in 2019 but was technically resident until 2022 is three years further along that clock than they think. See the inheritance and gift calculator for what happens when it trips, and moving back to India for how long it follows you after you go.

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