Statutory Residence Test - HM Revenue & Customs

Period of temporary non-residence
6. Period of temporary non-residence
6.1 When you return to the UK after a period of temporary non-residence, you
may be charged to tax on certain income and gains you received (or remitted
to the UK) in that period of temporary non-residence.
Temporary non-residence
6.2 You will be regarded as temporarily non-resident if:
Following a residence period where you have sole UK residence, one
or more residence periods occur for which you do not have sole UK
residence
in four or more of the seven tax years immediately preceding your year
of departure you had either;
sole UK residence for the tax year, or
the year was a split year that included a residence period for which
you had sole UK residence, and
your period of non-residence is five years or less.
Note that, for the special rules to not apply, your period of temporary nonresidence
has to be for more than five years; it does not have to be for five
complete tax years.
Meaning of residence period
6.3 In relation to whether you are temporarily non-resident, a residence period
is either;
a full tax year,
the overseas part of a split year, or
the UK part of a split year.
Meaning of sole UK residence
6.4 You will have sole UK residence for a residence period consisting of an
entire tax year if you are resident in the UK for that year, and there is no time
in that year when you are Treaty non-resident.
6.5 You will have sole UK residence for a residence period consisting of part
of a split year if the residence period is the UK part of that year and there is no
time in that part of the year when you are Treaty non-resident.
Treaty non-residence
6.6 You are Treaty non-resident at any time if, at the time, you fall to be
regarded as resident in a country outside the UK for the purposes of double
taxation agreements having effect at the time. You are Treaty resident in the
United Kingdom if, at the time, you fall to be regarded as resident in the UK
for the purposes of double taxation arrangements having effect at the time.
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