Following recent tax cases, there has been a question mark over what level of visits to the UK are sufficient to make an individual UK resident, or maintain their residence if they are trying to leave the UK.
Historically, when counting the number of days you have spent in the UK, days of arrival and departure were ignored. Consequently, if you came to the UK on a Monday and left on a Friday, this constituted three days presence in the UK. HMRC practice said that visits of less than 90 days, measured on this basis, were generally not sufficient to create UK residence.
The Pre-Budget Report proposed changing this basis to include both days of arrival and departure when looking at the 90 day test. The Chancellor has now announced that only days in which you are in the UK at midnight will count as a day’s presence in the UK effectively a half-way house.
There is a further concession in that passengers in transit between two places outside the UK will not be counted as present in the UK, even if they have to change airports. However, if you conduct a business meeting while you are in transit, this will bring you into the normal test. It is also important to bear in mind that places such as Jersey and Guernsey are not outside the UK for this purpose.
The relaxation in the test will make it easier for individuals to visit the UK without becoming resident here. However, for people looking to leave the UK and wishing to become non-resident, it is not simply a question of counting days. HMRC will look at your overall relationship to the UK and will expect to see a shift in your connections from the UK to a country abroad before they will accept that you have become non-resident.
