The 90 day tie under the statutory residence test

Q: How does this work for someone who has left?

Illustration only. Amira leaves the UK on 30 September 2025 to live in Portugal. She does not work full time abroad, so the full time work abroad test does not help her. She was present in the UK at midnight on 177 days in 2025 to 2026, and she has been resident for many years. 2026 to 2027. She has a 90 day tie because of 2025 to 2026. She stays with her sister, whose house is available to her all year, for 20 nights, giving her an accommodation tie. She has two ties. With 100 days in the UK she would be resident, because Table A needs only two ties for more than 90 but not more than 120 days. With 85 days she would need three ties and would be non resident. 2027 to 2028. She still has a 90 day tie, because 2025 to 2026 is one of the two previous years. 2028 to 2029. The tie only continues if she spent more than 90 days in the UK in 2026 to 2027 or 2027 to 2028. The example shows why a planned 100 day visit in the first year after departure can be enough to keep someone UK resident. It also shows that keeping visits to 90 days or fewer in the first two years removes the tie for the third.

You have a 90 day tie for a tax year if you spent more than 90 days in the UK in the tax year before it, in the tax year before that, or in both. Each earlier year is looked at on its own, so days are never added together across the two years. The tie mainly catches people leaving the UK, because the years before departure almost always contain well over 90 UK days and leavers need fewer ties to stay resident.

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What is the 90 day tie and where does the rule come from?

The 90 day tie is one of the UK ties used in the sufficient ties test, the part of the statutory residence test that decides your status when none of the automatic overseas or automatic UK tests settles it. It is defined in paragraph 37 of Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013: you have the tie for year X if you spent more than 90 days in the UK in the tax year before year X, the tax year before that, or each of those years separately.

Paragraph 31 lists the ties. Everyone counts a family tie, an accommodation tie, a work tie and a 90 day tie. Someone who was UK resident in one or more of the previous three tax years also counts a country tie. HMRC’s guidance on the 90 day tie is at RFIG20570 in its Residence and FIG Regime Manual.

Unlike the family and accommodation ties, which depend on your circumstances during the year being tested, the 90 day tie looks backwards. You cannot remove it by changing anything in the current year. It depends entirely on where you spent your time in the two previous tax years.

How are the days counted?

Days in the earlier years are counted under the normal SRT day counting rules in paragraphs 22 and 23 of Schedule 45:

The midnight rule. A day counts as a day spent in the UK if you are present in the UK at the end of it.
Transit days. A day does not count if you arrive as a passenger, leave the next day and do nothing substantially unrelated to your passage through the UK in between.
Exceptional circumstances. A day does not count if you would have left but for exceptional circumstances beyond your control, up to 60 days in a tax year. HMRC’s list at RFIG22220 confirms that these days can be discounted when testing the 90 day tie. Our guide to exceptional circumstances days covers what qualifies.
The deeming rule. In a year when the deeming rule applies, qualifying days after the first 30 are treated as UK days, so they count towards that year’s total when it is later looked back on.

Paragraph 23(5) closes one loop. The deeming rule only applies if you have at least three UK ties, and when deciding whether the 90 day tie is one of those three, qualifying days over 30 are not treated as UK days.

The test is more than 90 days. Exactly 90 days in each of the two earlier years does not create the tie.

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Why are the two years tested separately?

HMRC is explicit at RFIG20570 that the tie depends on the number of days in any one tax year, not a combination of days over two years. In its first example, someone who spent 50 days in the UK in each of the two previous years has no 90 day tie, even though the total is 100. In its second example, someone who spent 98 days in the earlier of the two years and 51 days in the later one does have the tie, because one of the two years passes the test on its own.

The practical consequence is that a single heavy year casts a shadow over the next two tax years. If you spent 150 days in the UK in 2025 to 2026, you have a 90 day tie for both 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028, whatever you do in those years.

Why does the tie affect leavers more than arrivers?

Three features of the rules combine.

Leavers almost always have the days. Someone who has lived in the UK spent far more than 90 days here in the year before departure, and usually in the departure year as well. Paragraph 37 counts days in the whole of each earlier year and makes no exception for a year that was split under split year treatment. RFIG20510 adds that a split year counts as a full year of UK residence when deciding whether you were resident in the previous three years. So for the first two tax years after leaving, most leavers start with one tie already in place.
Leavers need fewer ties. Paragraph 18 sets the ties needed by someone resident in one or more of the previous three years: at least 4 ties for more than 15 but not more than 45 days, 3 ties for more than 45 but not more than 90 days, 2 ties for more than 90 but not more than 120 days, and 1 tie for more than 120 days. Someone not resident in any of the previous three years needs all 4 ties for more than 45 but not more than 90 days, 3 ties for more than 90 but not more than 120 days and 2 ties above 120 days (RFIG20520).
Leavers also count the country tie. Paragraph 31 only gives arrivers four possible ties, whereas leavers have five. The 90 day tie is therefore one of several ties that can stack up quickly for a leaver.

An arriver can still have a 90 day tie. A person who was not resident in any of the previous three years may have spent more than 90 days here in one of them, for example on long visits while having too few ties to be resident. That person carries the tie into the next two years. But most arrivers have spent little time in the UK before they come, so the tie rarely applies to them in the first year.

How does this work for someone who has left?

Illustration only. Amira leaves the UK on 30 September 2025 to live in Portugal. She does not work full time abroad, so the full time work abroad test does not help her. She was present in the UK at midnight on 177 days in 2025 to 2026, and she has been resident for many years.

2026 to 2027. She has a 90 day tie because of 2025 to 2026. She stays with her sister, whose house is available to her all year, for 20 nights, giving her an accommodation tie. She has two ties. With 100 days in the UK she would be resident, because Table A needs only two ties for more than 90 but not more than 120 days. With 85 days she would need three ties and would be non resident.
2027 to 2028. She still has a 90 day tie, because 2025 to 2026 is one of the two previous years.
2028 to 2029. The tie only continues if she spent more than 90 days in the UK in 2026 to 2027 or 2027 to 2028.

The example shows why a planned 100 day visit in the first year after departure can be enough to keep someone UK resident. It also shows that keeping visits to 90 days or fewer in the first two years removes the tie for the third.

What records should you keep?

Because the tie depends on earlier years, the day count for those years needs to be reliable. Keep travel records such as boarding passes, booking confirmations and passport stamps for at least the two previous tax years, together with notes of any days you claim as transit or exceptional circumstances days. The residence pages of a Self Assessment return ask for the number of days you spent in the UK and the number of UK ties you had, so the figures need to be supportable if HMRC opens an enquiry.

What mistakes come up most often?

Adding the two previous years together, instead of testing each one separately.
Forgetting days spent in the UK in the UK part of a split year.
Treating 90 days as enough for the tie. It must be more than 90.
Counting transit days or days that qualify as exceptional circumstances days.
Ignoring deemed days in an earlier year where the deeming rule applied.
Planning a first year abroad around the arrivals table, when a recent leaver is tested under the stricter Table A.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.