UK tax year end: what to check about your residence before 5 April
The UK tax year runs to 5 April, and for anyone whose residence is close to a line, that date is not a formality. Your Statutory Residence Test position is worked out over the whole tax year, so a trip that falls on 4 April counts in one year and the same trip on 6 April counts in the next. As the year closes, a short review can catch a problem while you can still do something about it, which is the whole point of checking before the deadline rather than after.
Check your day count against the line that applies to you
Start with where you actually are. Pull your UK day count for the year and set it against the threshold that governs you: 15 days if you have been resident recently and want to stay non-resident, 45 if you are a clean arriver, or your ties-based limit if you are in between. The detail of those numbers is in how many days you can spend in the UK. The question at year end is simple: how much room is left, and is anything booked that would use it up.
Watch the last few weeks
Late March and early April are where years are won or lost, because a single trip decision lands the day on one side of 5 April or the other. If you are close to a threshold, a visit deferred from early April to later in the month falls into the next tax year instead, and can be the difference between resident and non-resident for the year you are closing. This is not tax planning in any aggressive sense, it is just being aware that the cutoff is a hard edge.
Confirm whether a split year applies
If you moved to or from the UK during the year, check whether split-year treatment divides it, and on what date, because that changes which part of the year is taxed as resident. Year end is the natural moment to confirm the split date and that the evidence for it is in order.
Keep the evidence now, not later
Whatever the answer, the burden of showing it sits with you, and the easiest time to assemble the record is while the year is fresh. Confirm your days, your ties, and any split-year position, and keep the working, so that if the year is ever queried you are not reconstructing it from memory a year or two on.
The practical point
The tax year end is a fixed deadline against a moving day count, which is exactly the kind of thing that is easy to miss until it has passed. SplitYear shows where you stand as the year closes, how much room is left against your threshold, and whether a late trip would tip you over, with every figure cited to source so a year-end check takes minutes.
SplitYear gives general information about the rules, cited to source. It is not tax advice and does not replace a professional adviser. Rules as at Finance Act 2013, Schedule 45, and HMRC guidance note RDR3.