How the Statutory Residence Test counts your UK days
If you are a UK expat who still spends time in the UK, the Statutory Residence Test decides whether a tax year counts you as UK resident. This page sets out the tests, the order they are applied in, and what each one counts.
Read this first
This page states the tests. It cannot tell you whether you are resident, because that turns on facts about your work, your home and your family that only you hold. Nothing here is tax advice. The notices are on the terms page.
A UK day is a night in the UK
A UK day is a day you are in the UK at the end of it. Counting is arrival-inclusive and departure-exclusive: you record a visit once, by the date you arrived and the date you left, and the day you leave does not count as a midnight.
A visit arriving on 1 May and leaving on 16 June is 46 UK days. Every tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, and every test is applied to one tax year at a time.
The UK for this test is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not the UK.
Leaver or arriver
You are a leaver for a tax year if you were UK resident in any of the three tax years before it, and an arriver if you were not. Leavers face tighter day thresholds, and only leavers can have the country tie.
If the record does not show which of those you are, both readings are run. A year is published only when they agree.
The order of the tests
The order matters. The first test that settles a year settles it.
Automatic overseas: fewer than 16 UK days if you are a leaver; fewer than 46 if you are an arriver; or full-time work abroad, with fewer than 91 UK midnights and fewer than 31 UK workdays. The hours and the significant-break conditions are facts you confirm. A significant break is 31 consecutive days without an overseas workday of more than three hours, subject to the statutory carve-outs for leave.
Automatic UK: 183 UK days or more settles the year as resident. The home test, broadly, is a UK home you are present in on at least 30 days, during a 91-day stretch in which you have no overseas home you use for 30 days. Full-time work in the UK is full-time work across a 365-day period that overlaps the tax year. Those two turn on facts a day log cannot see, so the app asks you to confirm each one. Until an answer is needed, an unanswered question is not treated as a no.
Sufficient ties
If no automatic test decides the year, residence turns on how many ties to the UK you have against how many days you spent here.
Leaver, 16 to 45 days
4 ties.
Leaver, 46 to 90 days
3 ties.
Leaver, 91 to 120 days
2 ties.
Leaver, 121 to 182 days
1 tie.
Arriver, 46 to 90 days
All 4 ties. The country tie does not apply.
Arriver, 91 to 120 days
3 ties.
Arriver, 121 to 182 days
2 ties.
The five ties
Family
A spouse or civil partner who is not separated, a partner you live with as a couple, or your child under 18, where that person is UK resident for the year. You do not have the tie through a child you see in the UK on fewer than 61 days. Separately, a child in full-time education in the UK who would not be UK resident if that education were ignored is treated as not resident where they spend fewer than 21 days in the UK outside term-time. You assert this tie. The log cannot see it.
Accommodation
A place to live in the UK available for a continuous period of at least 91 days, where you spend at least one night. A gap of fewer than 16 days does not break that availability. If the place is a close relative's home, the night test is 16 nights. A close relative is a parent, grandparent, brother or sister, or a child or grandchild aged 18 or over, including by half-blood or by marriage or civil partnership. You assert this tie.
Work
40 or more days in the tax year on which you do more than 3 hours' work in the UK. The app derives the tie from the workday count you enter. It is not a yes-or-no box.
90-day
More than 90 UK midnights in either of the two previous tax years, looked at separately, not added together. Deemed days are not included.
Country
The UK is the country in which you were present at midnight more than in any other single country. Offered only on a leaver reading. You assert it, because the log does not hold other countries.
Deemed days
If you are a leaver with three ties or more, days you were in the UK without being there at midnight — departure days and same-day visits — stop being outside the count after the first 30 of them. Every such day beyond 30 is a deemed day.
Deemed days count towards the 16-day and 46-day thresholds, the 183-day test, and the day bands in the sufficient-ties table. They do not count towards the 91-day cap in the full-time-work-abroad test, and they do not count towards the 90-day tie. Both of those are midnights only.
Inheritance tax
From 2025/26, the long-term residence count is how many of the previous 20 tax years were resident years. The current year is not part of its own count. At 10 or more, the count meets the statutory threshold.
The app shows that count as an indicator. It does not apply the leaving tail, the modification for a person under 20, the rules for years before the statutory residence test, or the international-exemption disregard.
What the app covers
Whole tax years from 2016/17, beginning 6 April 2016. Earlier years can be supplied as known residence history. The 90-day tie in the first counted years needs midnight totals for 2014/15 and 2015/16. Split-year treatment is not applied.
Common questions
Does the day I leave the UK count as a UK day?
Not as a midnight. UK days are arrival-inclusive and departure-exclusive. The departure day can still be a deemed day if you are a leaver with three ties or more and you are past the 30 qualifying days.
How many days can I spend in the UK without the year reading as resident?
There is no single number. At 183 UK days the 183-day test settles the year as resident. Below that it turns on ties and on whether you are a leaver or an arriver. Fewer than 16 days for a leaver, or fewer than 46 for an arriver, settles the year as not resident, subject to the deeming rule.
What is the difference between a leaver and an arriver?
A leaver was UK resident in at least one of the three previous tax years. An arriver was not. Only a leaver can have the country tie.
Do deemed days count towards the 90-day tie?
No. The 90-day tie is midnights in either of the two previous tax years. The 91-day cap in the full-time-work-abroad test is also midnights only.
When does the ten-of-twenty inheritance tax count start?
From the 2025/26 tax year. It counts resident years among the previous twenty. Treat the figure as an indicator.