UK Tax Residency Calculator 2026/27
HMRC's Statutory Residence Test (SRT) in plain English. Enter your UK day count and your ties, and see which of the three SRT stages decides your status.
Check your UK residence status
The SRT treats a leaver (recently UK resident) more strictly than an arriver. You are testing the 2026/27 tax year, so the previous three tax years are 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26.
A leaver is resident in one or more of those three years. An arriver is non-resident in all three. The country tie applies to leavers only.
Count any day you were in the UK at midnight, between 6 April 2026 and 5 April 2027.
Ties combined with your day count decide residence under the third SRT stage. The country tie only applies to leavers.
Most contractors leave these on "No". Only switch one if that specific automatic test clearly applies to you.
Third automatic overseas test — all three conditions must hold, with no significant break from overseas work.
Third automatic UK test — more than 75% of your workdays in that period are UK workdays.
Second automatic UK test.
Where no automatic test settles it, these are the day counts at which you become UK resident for a given number of ties. Leavers can have five ties (the country tie is available); arrivers can have four.
| Days in the UK in the tax year | Leaver — UK resident if | Arriver — UK resident if |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 16 | Never — automatic overseas test | Never — automatic overseas test |
| 16 to 45 | 4 ties or more | Never — automatic overseas test |
| 46 to 90 | 3 ties or more | All 4 ties |
| 91 to 120 | 2 ties or more | 3 ties or more |
| 121 to 182 | 1 tie or more | 2 ties or more |
| 183 or more | Always — automatic UK test | Always — automatic UK test |
About the Statutory Residence Test
The SRT replaced the old common-law residence rules on 6 April 2013. It is in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013, and HMRC explains it in RDR3. It works through three stages, strictly in this order:
1. Automatic overseas tests
If any one applies, you are not UK resident for the year, however many ties you have:
- you were UK resident in one or more of the previous three tax years and spent fewer than 16 days in the UK;
- you were not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years and spent fewer than 46 days in the UK;
- you work full-time overseas — an average of 35 hours a week with no significant break, fewer than 91 days in the UK, and fewer than 31 days on which you do more than 3 hours of work in the UK.
2. Automatic UK tests
If no automatic overseas test applies and any one of these does, you are UK resident regardless of ties:
- 183 days or more in the UK in the tax year;
- the only-home test — a UK home available for a continuous period of at least 91 days, present there on at least 30 days in the year, and no overseas home in which you are present on 30 days or more;
- full-time work in the UK over a 365-day period, with more than 75% of your workdays being UK workdays.
3. Sufficient ties test
If neither set of automatic tests settles it, your day count is matched against your number of ties using the table above. Leavers need fewer ties at the same day count than arrivers, because they are presumed to be more connected to the UK — and only leavers can have the fifth, country, tie.
Read next
Our plain-English SRT guide walks through the same tests with worked contractor examples. If you are still inside the UK tax net, the IR35 calculator and the rest of the contractor calculators work out what that costs on 2026/27 rates.
The SRT is the legal test HMRC uses to decide whether you are UK tax resident for a given tax year. It is set out in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013 and has applied since 6 April 2013. It runs in a fixed order: the automatic overseas tests, then the automatic UK tests, then the sufficient ties test, which matches your day count against the number of ties you have to the UK.
There is no single answer. If you were not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years (an arriver), fewer than 46 days in the UK meets an automatic overseas test. If you were UK resident in any of those three years (a leaver), that drops to fewer than 16 days. Above those counts the sufficient ties table decides it: a leaver becomes resident at 121 days with one tie, 91 days with two, 46 days with three and 16 days with four.
Generally any day where you are in the UK at midnight. There are exceptions for transit days (you arrive and leave without doing anything unrelated to the journey) and for days you could not leave because of exceptional circumstances outside your control, such as serious illness or civil unrest — those are capped at 60 days a tax year. A separate deeming rule can add days for people with three or more ties and a recent UK residence history, so borderline counts are worth checking with an accountant.
Family tie (UK-resident spouse, civil partner or minor child), accommodation tie (UK accommodation available to you for a continuous 91 days that you spend at least one night in, or 16 nights if it is a close relative's home), work tie (40 or more days on which you do more than 3 hours of work in the UK), 90-day tie (more than 90 days in the UK in either or both of the previous two tax years), and the country tie (the UK is the country in which you spent the most midnights) which applies to leavers only.
This calculator implements the same logic in plain English. RDR3 is the authoritative guidance and runs to 100+ pages. We do not model split-year treatment, the deeming rule, deemed-domicile interactions, temporary non-residence or the fine print of dual residence treaty tiebreakers — all common in contractor situations and worth a professional review.
Generally no, UK off-payroll rules apply to UK tax residents. But if your end client is in the UK and your PSC is UK-incorporated, the picture gets complicated — particularly around the Chapter 10 off-payroll rules and whether you are deemed to be carrying on a UK trade. See our IR35 hub.
Borderline SRT cases (within 5 days of a threshold, or where tie facts are debatable) are exactly the wrong place to be without paid advice. The downside of getting it wrong (back tax, interest, penalties) usually outweighs the cost of an accountant's letter several times over.
No. This is an indicative calculator only. For a formal determination use HMRC's RDR3 guidance or speak to a qualified international contractor accountant. Borderline cases often require formal SRT advice.
No. This is an indicative tool only. Use it as a starting point and verify with a qualified international contractor accountant. ContractorUK is not a tax adviser.
This tool is an indicative guide to HMRC's Statutory Residence Test. It is not a formal determination and must not be relied on as professional tax advice.
It does not model split-year treatment, double tax treaty tiebreakers, deemed domicile, temporary non-residence, the deeming rule, or the "exceptional circumstances" permitted period — all facts HMRC will weigh in a real review.
If you are within a few days of a threshold, have unusual ties, or face an HMRC enquiry, get qualified advice from a chartered international tax adviser or contractor accountant before filing. ContractorUK is not a tax adviser and accepts no liability for decisions made based on this tool.
This tool applies the day counts and tie tests in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013 and performs no tax arithmetic. Verify any borderline case against HMRC's RDR3 guidance or with a qualified adviser.