UK Expat Tax: The FIG Regime, SRT & Tax Rates

The UK no longer has a non-dom regime. Since 6 April 2025, what matters is how long you've lived here. If you arrive after at least 10 tax years abroad, you can pay no UK tax on your foreign income and gains for your first four years. After that, you're taxed on everything, wherever it comes from.

This guide covers UK personal tax for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027): the foreign income and gains (FIG) regime, inheritance tax, the Statutory Residence Test and the rates you'll pay. Figures are for England unless we say otherwise.

The key question is simple. Have you been non-UK resident for each of the last 10 tax years? If so, your first four years here can look very different from year five onwards.

What's changed: on 6 April 2025 the remittance basis and domicile rules were replaced by the four-year FIG regime and a residence-based inheritance tax test. From 6 April 2026, dividend tax rose to 10.75% and 35.75%, Business Asset Disposal Relief rose to 18%, and voluntary Class 2 National Insurance for time abroad ended. Finance Act 2026 raises tax on savings and property income to 22%, 42% and 47% from April 2027, brings unused pensions into inheritance tax from the same date and freezes the personal allowance until April 2031. The next Budget is on 28 October 2026.

📋 UK tax at a glance for 2026/27

The 4-year FIG regime for new arrivals

For four years, a new arrival can pay no UK tax on foreign income and gains, and bring the money into the UK freely.

Image 1 — new arrivals pay 0% on foreign income for four years

You qualify in any of your first four tax years of UK residence, as long as you were non-UK resident for at least 10 consecutive tax years before you arrived. Nationality and domicile don't matter, so a British citizen coming home after 10 years away qualifies too.

It covers:

• profits of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK

• rent from property abroad

• dividends from non-UK companies and interest on foreign accounts

• foreign pension income, with a few exceptions

• gains on foreign assets

It isn't automatic or free. You claim it each year on your Self Assessment return and lose your personal allowance and £3,000 capital gains allowance for that year. If your foreign income is small and you also have UK income, claiming can cost more than it saves. UK income, such as a salary for work done here, is taxed as normal.

👉 HMRC helpsheet HS266: the foreign income and gains (FIG) regime (2026)

Overseas Workday Relief and the repatriation facility

If some of your workdays are outside the UK, Overseas Workday Relief can take the pay for those days out of UK tax in your first four tax years. It's capped at the lower of 30% of your employment income or £300,000 a year, and you no longer need to keep the money in an offshore account.

If you used the old remittance basis, the Temporary Repatriation Facility lets you bring income and gains from those years into the UK at a flat 12% in 2025/26 and 2026/27. The rate rises to 15% in 2027/28, the last year it runs.

👉 HM Treasury and HMRC: reforming the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals

Inheritance tax now follows residence

Domicile no longer decides your inheritance tax. You become a long-term UK resident, with your worldwide assets in scope, once you've been UK resident for 10 of the previous 20 tax years. Until then, only your UK assets are.

The rate is 40% above a £325,000 threshold, which can rise to £500,000 if you leave your home to your children or grandchildren. The status follows you abroad: after 10 to 13 years here it lasts 3 tax years after you leave, growing with each extra year up to 10.

👉 GOV.UK: Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident

When you become UK tax resident, and how you stop

The UK decides residence for each tax year using the Statutory Residence Test (SRT). A day counts if you're in the UK at the end of it. You work through the test in order.

• Automatic overseas tests. You're not resident with fewer than 16 UK days (if you were resident in any of the previous 3 tax years) or fewer than 46 (if you weren't), or if you work full time abroad with fewer than 91 UK days and fewer than 31 UK workdays of more than 3 hours.

• Automatic UK tests. You're resident with 183 UK days or more, if your only home is here for at least 91 days and you spend at least 30 days in it, or if you work full time here.

• Sufficient ties test. If no automatic test settles it, your UK days and your UK ties decide.

UK sufficient ties test: ties needed to be resident

The ties are family (a UK-resident spouse, partner or child under 18), accommodation (a UK home available for 91 days or more that you use), work (more than 3 hours' work in the UK on 40 days or more), 90 days (more than 90 UK days in either of the previous two tax years) and, for leavers only, country (the UK is where you spent the most midnights).

In the year you arrive or leave, split-year treatment can divide the year into a UK part and an overseas part.

Leaving takes planning. With enough ties you can stay resident on as few as 16 days, so full-time work abroad is the cleanest exit. Under the temporary non-residence rules, if you come back within 5 years, having been UK resident in 4 of the 7 tax years before you left, some income and gains from your time away are taxed on your return. There's no general exit tax for individuals.

👉 HMRC RDR3: guidance note for the Statutory Residence Test

Income tax rates for 2026/27

UK income tax rates for 2026/27 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)

Source: GOV.UK income tax rates for 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.

Your personal allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000, so it's gone at £125,140. Scotland sets its own bands: 19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45% and 48% for 2026/27, with the 42% rate starting at £43,663. Scottish rates apply to wages, pensions and most other income, but dividends and savings interest are taxed at the UK rates.

👉 GOV.UK: income tax rates and personal allowances

👉 GOV.UK: Scottish income tax rates for 2026/27

Worked example

• You're single, live in England and earn a salary of £74,000 (about US$100k) in 2026/27.

• Income tax is £7,540 on the basic rate band plus £9,492 at 40%, so £17,032.

• Employee National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 (£3,016) plus 2% above it (£474.60), so £3,490.60.

Your all-in bill is about £20,523, or 28% of your salary. In Scotland the same salary costs about £22,553, or 30%. A salary paid for work in the UK is taxed in full even in your FIG years.

Freelancing in the UK

Self-employed profits are taxed on the same scale as salaries, plus Class 4 National Insurance: 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that. On a profit of £74,000 that's £2,736.60 on top of £17,032 of income tax, about 27% all-in.

Class 2 is no longer charged as such. If your profits are £7,105 or more, you get a Class 2 credit for your State Pension record without paying. Below that, you can pay voluntarily at £3.65 a week.

The FIG regime only covers a trade carried on wholly outside the UK. Working for overseas clients from a desk in the UK doesn't count.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. You keep digital records and update HMRC during the year.

👉 GOV.UK: National Insurance rates if you're self-employed

👉 HMRC: check if you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Crypto, investments and pensions

How is crypto taxed in the UK? Gains pay capital gains tax at 18% within your basic rate band and 24% above it, after a £3,000 allowance. Selling, swapping, spending and giving crypto away (except to a spouse, civil partner or charity) all count as disposals.

Crypto is the big gap in the FIG regime. HMRC treats a cryptoasset as located where its owner lives, so once you're UK resident your crypto is a UK asset.

👉 HMRC: check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets

👉 HMRC Cryptoassets Manual: where cryptoassets are located

Dividends above a £500 allowance are taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% or 39.35%, depending on your band. Gains on shares and funds also pay 18% or 24%. Finance Act 2026 raises tax on savings interest and property income to 22%, 42% and 47% from 6 April 2027.

Foreign pensions are taxed in full at the normal rates unless your FIG claim covers them, although a treaty can give the paying country the right to tax government service pensions. A £29,600 foreign pension plus £14,800 of dividends costs about £4,943 a year, or 11%, once your FIG years are over.

The UK has no wealth tax. From 6 April 2027, unused pension funds will count towards your estate for inheritance tax.

👉 GOV.UK: tax on dividends for 2026/27

👉 GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances

👉 HMRC Employment Income Manual: how foreign pensions are taxed

👉 Finance Act 2026: savings and property rates, allowance freeze and pensions in inheritance tax

Social security

Employees pay Class 1 National Insurance at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, and 2% above that. Employers pay 15% on earnings above £5,000. There's no National Insurance on pensions, dividends or gains.

If you leave, the rules for topping up your record changed on 6 April 2026. Voluntary Class 2 for time abroad has ended, and voluntary Class 3 now needs 10 continuous years of UK residence or 10 years of qualifying contributions, with transitional rules for earlier applicants.

👉 HMRC: National Insurance rates and thresholds for 2026/27

👉 GOV.UK: voluntary National Insurance if you live or work abroad

Double tax treaties

Does the UK have double tax treaties? Yes, and the network is very wide. The government's treaty collection has pages for more than 150 countries and territories. Conventions in force include those with the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Australia and the UAE.

If you're resident in both countries under their own rules, the treaty's tie-breaker decides which comes first. Some entries cover narrower agreements, so check the page for your country.

👉 GOV.UK: UK tax treaties by country

Staying long term without a nomad visa

The UK has no digital nomad visa. The practical route for a remote worker is the Standard Visitor route, which usually lets you stay for up to six months. Depending on your nationality, you need a visa, an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) or neither.

The visitor rules let you carry on your overseas job remotely, as long as that isn't the main purpose of your visit. You can't work for a UK company or as self-employed in the UK, or live here through frequent or successive visits. Watch your days too: a six-month stay can pass 183 days and make you tax resident.

👉 GOV.UK: visit the UK as a Standard Visitor

👉 Immigration Rules Appendix Visitor: permitted activities, including remote work

Who is the UK good for?

Ratings are relative to the 150+ countries TaxPilot covers, based on 2026/27 rules in England and the all-in cost including National Insurance. We converted at US$1.35 to £1, close to HMRC's October 2026 rate of 1.3456.

☑️ Who is the UK good for? Tax ratings for expats in 2026/27

Filing and deadlines

Employees usually pay through PAYE. You need a Self Assessment return if you're self-employed, have untaxed foreign income, or want to claim the FIG regime or Overseas Workday Relief.

For 2026/27, you register by 5 October 2027. Paper returns are due by 31 October 2027 and online returns by 31 January 2028, which is also when the tax is due. Bigger bills also mean payments on account towards the next year, on 31 January and 31 July.

👉 GOV.UK: Self Assessment deadlines

👉 GOV.UK: payments on account

👉 HM Treasury: Budget 2026 to be held on 28 October 2026

Frequently asked questions

What is the UK FIG regime?

It replaced the remittance basis on 6 April 2025. If you were non-UK resident for at least 10 consecutive tax years, you can claim relief from UK tax on foreign income and gains for your first four tax years here, and bring the money in tax free. You lose your personal allowances in any year you claim.

How many days can I spend in the UK without becoming tax resident?

It depends on your ties. Fewer than 16 days in a tax year keeps you non-resident, or fewer than 46 if you weren't resident in the previous three years. At 183 days you're always resident. In between, your UK ties decide it.

What are the UK income tax rates for 2026/27?

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the first £12,570 is tax free, then income is taxed at 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that. Scotland has six rates from 19% to 48%.

Is crypto covered by the FIG regime?

Usually not. HMRC treats a cryptoasset as located where its owner is resident, so a UK resident's crypto is a UK asset. Gains are taxed at 18% or 24% above the £3,000 annual allowance.

When does inheritance tax apply to my worldwide assets?

Once you've been UK resident for 10 of the previous 20 tax years. Your worldwide assets are then in scope at 40% above £325,000, and the status lasts 3 to 10 tax years after you leave.