The UK Statutory Residence Test, explained simply
14 July 2026 · 6 min read
In short
You are automatically UK tax resident if you spend 183 or more days in the UK in a tax year (6 April to 5 April). A day counts if you are in the UK at midnight. Below 183 days, the Statutory Residence Test looks at automatic tests and then at how many 'ties' you have to the UK — the more ties, the fewer days you can spend before becoming resident.
What is the Statutory Residence Test?
The Statutory Residence Test (SRT) is the legal framework HMRC uses to decide whether you are UK tax resident for a given tax year. The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, and residency is decided year by year — you can be resident one year and not the next.
The 183-day rule
The simplest part: if you spend 183 days or more in the UK in a tax year, you are automatically UK tax resident. No ties, no exceptions worth relying on. A day normally counts as a UK day if you are in the UK at the end of the day — that is, at midnight.
The midnight rule
Because only midnights count, a same-day return trip to London usually adds zero UK days, while landing at 11pm adds one. This is why serious day counting tracks where you were each midnight, not which countries you visited. (There is a separate "deeming rule" that can count some transit and departure days for frequent visitors — another reason to keep a complete log.)
The sufficient-ties test
If neither the automatic overseas tests nor the automatic UK tests settle it, your residency depends on how many ties you have to the UK:
- Family tie — a spouse, partner or minor child who is UK resident.
- Accommodation tie — a place to live in the UK that is available to you for a continuous period and that you use.
- Work tie — 40 or more days in the year on which you work more than 3 hours in the UK.
- 90-day tie — you spent more than 90 days in the UK in either of the two previous tax years.
- Country tie (leavers only) — the UK is the country where you spent the most midnights.
The more ties you have, the fewer UK days you can spend before becoming resident. For example, a "leaver" (resident in one of the three previous tax years) with three ties becomes resident at just 46 UK days; an "arriver" with two ties has until 121 days.
How TaxDin helps
TaxDin counts your UK midnights per tax year automatically, tracks UK workdays for the work tie, computes the 90-day tie from your history, and lets you switch the family and accommodation ties per year — then shows a clear resident / not-resident readout with the day threshold that applies to you. It is a day-counting aid, not tax advice: for borderline years, take the numbers to a qualified adviser.