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When does your UK tax actually stop?

Leave the UK mid-year and, without split-year treatment, HMRC taxes the whole year as if you never left, Dubai salary included. Answer the questions below and we'll work out whether a split applies to you, which case fits, and your shrunken day budget for the rest of the year.

1 Your departure
? What this means

A UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. So 2026/27 means 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Split-year treatment only ever applies to the single year in which you leave.

Where are you in the move?
Were you living in the UK at the start of that tax year (6 April)?
? Why we ask

Split-year treatment is for people who would otherwise be UK resident for the whole year. If you'd already been abroad long enough to be non-resident for the full year, there's nothing to split, and our residency checker is the tool you want instead.

Were you UK tax resident in the tax year before that?

If you'd been living in the UK, that's a yes.

? Why the month matters so much

Your remaining UK day allowances shrink with every month of the year that's already gone. Leave in April and the overseas part of your year allows up to 90 UK days; leave in October and it's 45; by February it's 15. HMRC publishes the exact table and we apply it below.

Use the month you started (or will start) the overseas job, or the month you gave up your UK home, whichever fits your route.

2 Your route out
Which of these best describes your move?
? The three doors

HMRC recognises three ways a leaver's year can split. Case 1: you start full-time work overseas. Case 2: you move to keep living with a partner who has. Case 3: you give up every UK home and are barely back. Where more than one fits, Case 1 wins, then Case 2, then Case 3.

3 Homes
From your departure, will you give up every home in the UK for the rest of the tax year?
? Why homes decide Case 3

Case 3 (the route for people moving without full-time work) requires ceasing to have ANY home in the UK: sold, tenancy ended, or let to tenants on a proper tenancy so it's no longer yours to live in. Keeping a home available, even empty, keeps Case 3 shut.

4 The rest of the year
? How to count these

Count every day you're in the UK at midnight: the trip home for Christmas, the wedding, the work visit. The permitted number depends on your departure month and your case, and it's smaller than most people assume. We check your number against your month's limit.

5 Next year
Will you stay non-UK resident for the whole of the next tax year?
? The condition that unravels everything

Every split-year case requires it. Become UK resident again next year and the split fails retroactively: your departure year is re-taxed as fully UK resident. Our day allowance calculator shows how many UK days next year's ties give you.

This calculator covers the three leaver cases of split-year treatment (starting full-time work overseas, joining a partner who has, and ceasing to have a UK home), including HMRC's month-by-month reduced day limits. It is a guide, not a formal determination or personal advice; the full-time-work calculation and the arriver cases (4 to 8) need proper review. Checked against HMRC's current guidance (RFIG21030 to RFIG21130) on 17 July 2026.

What split-year treatment actually means for you

The UK taxes by the tax year, 6 April to 5 April, and residence is decided for the whole year at once. So the default position when you leave in, say, October is uncomfortable: UK resident for the entire year, which drags your October-to-April Dubai earnings into UK tax. Split-year treatment is the statutory fix. When one of the cases applies, your year divides at your departure: taxed as UK resident before it, as non-resident after it. Your Dubai salary or profits from the split date onwards fall out of UK income tax.

Three things people consistently get wrong. First, the split doesn't remove your obligations for the year: you still file a Self Assessment return and claim the split on the residence pages, and UK-source income (rent, some pensions) stays taxable after the split. Second, the day limits shrink: the familiar annual allowances are pro-rated by departure month, so an October leaver gets roughly 45 UK days for the rest of that year, not 90. Third, every case is conditional on next year: come back too soon and the split unwinds retroactively.

This is the third of our three residency tools. Start with am I still UK tax resident?, plan with how many days am I allowed?, and use this one to nail the departure year itself. For the background, read how split-year treatment works.

How your departure month changes your tax position

Two things move with the date you leave. The gold part of each bar is the slice of the tax year taxed as UK resident (6 April up to your departure); the green part is the overseas slice, where earnings like a Dubai salary sit outside UK income tax once a split applies. And the two numbers on the right are HMRC's reduced limits for that overseas slice under Case 1: the most days you can spend back in the UK, and the most days you can work more than 3 hours here, before the split fails.

Split-year treatment Case 1: the maximum UK days and UK work days HMRC allows in the overseas part of the tax year, by the month you leave the UK. Source: HMRC Residence and FIG regime manual, RFIG21070, checked 17 July 2026.
You leave inYour tax yearUK days allowed after leavingUK work days allowed
6 to 30 April about 12 months outside UK tax · 90 UK days, 30 work days allowed 90 30
May about 11 months outside UK tax · 82 UK days, 27 work days allowed 82 27
June about 10 months outside UK tax · 75 UK days, 25 work days allowed 75 25
July about 9 months outside UK tax · 67 UK days, 22 work days allowed 67 22
August about 8 months outside UK tax · 60 UK days, 20 work days allowed 60 20
September about 7 months outside UK tax · 52 UK days, 17 work days allowed 52 17
October about 6 months outside UK tax · 45 UK days, 15 work days allowed 45 15
November about 5 months outside UK tax · 37 UK days, 12 work days allowed 37 12
December about 4 months outside UK tax · 30 UK days, 10 work days allowed 30 10
January about 3 months outside UK tax · 22 UK days, 7 work days allowed 22 7
February about 2 months outside UK tax · 15 UK days, 5 work days allowed 15 5
March about 1 month outside UK tax · 7 UK days, 2 work days allowed 7 2
1 to 5 April only days left of the year · 0 UK days, 0 work days allowed 0 0

Day limits are HMRC's published table for split-year Case 1 (starting full-time work overseas), from the Residence and FIG regime manual at RFIG21070, checked 17 July 2026. Case 3 (leaving without full-time work, having given up every UK home) has a single stricter limit instead: fewer than 16 UK days after your home goes, whenever you leave. Bars show the year's split at the start of each month, as a guide to proportion rather than a day-perfect measure.

Three things to read off this honestly. Leaving earlier puts more of the year's income outside UK tax and leaves you a workable visiting budget; the classic clean pattern is a spring departure. Leaving mid-year works fine, but notice how fast the allowances fall: an October leaver has 45 UK days to cover every trip home until 5 April, Christmas included. Leaving late buys almost nothing that year (a February departure shelters roughly two months of income and allows 15 UK days), so if you're planning a January-to-March exit it's often worth asking whether waiting for 6 April, and a clean full year, beats a scramble for a thin slice. That timing question is precisely what a departure plan settles.

Common questions

What does split-year treatment actually do for me?

It divides your departure tax year in two. You are taxed as UK resident up to your departure and as non-resident afterwards, so income you earn overseas after the split (your Dubai salary or profits) is outside UK income tax. Without it, the whole year is taxed as UK resident, including what you earn in Dubai until the following 5 April.

Is split-year treatment automatic?

It applies automatically when you meet one of the statutory cases; you cannot choose it or opt out. But you still have to report it: you file a Self Assessment return for the departure year and claim the split on the residence pages (SA109). Meeting the conditions and telling HMRC about it are two different jobs.

Which split-year cases matter for a move to Dubai?

Three leaver cases. Case 1: you start full-time work overseas. Case 2: you move to keep living with a partner who has. Case 3: you give up every UK home and are barely back. Where more than one fits, Case 1 beats Case 2, which beats Case 3.

How many days can I spend in the UK after I leave mid-year?

Fewer than the annual limits, and this is the trap. Under Case 1 the day allowances shrink by departure month: leave in October and you have roughly 45 UK days and 15 UK work days until 5 April, not the full-year 90 and 30. Under Case 3 it is fewer than 16 days full stop. The calculator shows your month's numbers.

What happens if I come back within a year or two?

Every case requires you to stay non-UK resident for the whole of the following tax year. Become resident again next year and the split fails retroactively, making your departure year fully UK resident. There are also temporary non-residence rules that can tax certain gains and income if you return within five years, which is exactly what a proper departure plan prices in.