What are the 5 UK connection ties in the Statutory Residence Test?

The five ties are: (1) Family tie - your spouse, civil partner, or a child under 18 is UK resident; (2) Accommodation tie - you have a UK place to stay available for 91+ continuous days and use it for at least one night (or 16 nights for a close relative's home); (3) Work tie - you work in the UK on 40 or more days in the year; (4) 90-day tie - you spent more than 90 days in the UK in either of the previous two tax years; (5) Country tie (leavers only) - you spend more days in the UK than in any other single country.

What is the difference between a leaver and an arriver in the sufficient ties test?

A leaver is someone who was UK resident in at least one of the previous three tax years. A leaver can have up to five ties counted against them and faces stricter day thresholds - for example, a leaver with three ties is resident after 46 days. An arriver was not UK resident in any of the previous three years and is assessed against a maximum of four ties (the country tie does not apply). Arrivers get higher day thresholds at every band.

Does staying in my parents' spare bedroom give me an accommodation tie?

It can. A close relative's home (parent, grandparent, sibling, or adult child aged 18+) is subject to a higher threshold: the room must be available to you for a continuous period of 91 or more days, and you must actually stay there for at least 16 nights during the tax year. If both conditions are met, you have an accommodation tie - regardless of whether you pay rent or have a formal arrangement.

What counts as a UK working day for the work tie?

A UK working day is any day on which you perform more than 3 hours of substantive work in the UK. This applies to employed and self-employed work equally. Travel time, commuting, and training incidental to your role do not count. The work tie applies if you have 40 or more such days in the tax year - exactly 40 days triggers the tie.

Does the country tie apply to someone who has never lived in the UK?

No. The country tie only applies to leavers - people who were UK resident in at least one of the previous three tax years. Arrivers are assessed against a maximum of four ties, and the country tie is not one of them.

UK Ties Test Explained: The 5 Connection Ties

What is the Sufficient Ties Test?

When neither the automatic overseas tests nor the automatic UK tests give a definitive result, the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) uses the sufficient ties test to determine your residence status. This is Stage 3 of the SRT, and it's where most of the difficult, borderline cases are decided.

The sufficient ties test cross-references two things: how many days you spent in the UK during the tax year, and how many of five defined "ties" - connections to the UK - you have. The more ties you have, the fewer days you need before you become UK resident. Equally, the fewer ties you have, the more days you can spend in the UK before residence is triggered.

The test sounds straightforward, but the ties themselves have detailed definitions, several non-obvious edge cases, and different rules depending on whether you are a leaver or an arriver. This guide walks through each tie in depth, explains the threshold tables, and looks at common borderline situations.

Not sure how many ties you have? Run the SRT questionnaire — it works through all three stages automatically, including the sufficient ties test for both leavers and arrivers.

Leavers and Arrivers: The Most Important Distinction

Before examining the individual ties, you need to know which category you fall into.

A leaver is someone who was UK resident in at least one of the previous three tax years. A leaver is assessed against up to five ties.

An arriver is someone who was not UK resident in any of the previous three tax years. An arriver is assessed against a maximum of four ties - the country tie (tie 5) does not apply to arrivers.

This distinction matters for two reasons. First, leavers can potentially have more ties counted against them. Second, the day thresholds are stricter for leavers - HMRC applies tougher scrutiny to people who were recently resident in the UK, on the basis that they are more likely to have maintained genuine connections.

The 5 Connection Ties

1. Family Tie

The rule: Your spouse, civil partner, or a child under 18 is UK resident in the tax year. Full detail: the family tie explained.

For a spouse or civil partner, the tie applies unless you are separated under a court order or formal deed of separation. Informal separation - living apart without legal documentation - does not break the family tie. Many people in the process of separating from a UK-based partner are surprised to find they still have this tie.

For a minor child (under 18), the tie applies only if:

The child lives with you for all or part of the tax year, or
You see the child in the UK on 61 or more days during the year

A child away at full-time UK boarding school may be excluded from the test if they would not otherwise be UK resident without that education - this is a specific carve-out designed to avoid penalising parents whose children happen to attend UK schools.

Evidence: Your spouse's tax correspondence or HMRC records confirming UK residence; children's school enrolment documents; records of the days you saw your child (travel diaries, school visit logs).

Common pitfall: People assume that moving abroad ends the family tie if their partner stays behind. It doesn't - as long as your partner is UK resident and you are not legally separated, you have this tie.

2. Accommodation Tie

The rule: You have a place to stay in the UK that is available to you for a continuous period of at least 91 days, and you actually spend at least one night there during the tax year. Full detail: the accommodation tie explained. There is an important exception: if the accommodation is a close relative's home (parent, grandparent, sibling, or adult child aged 18+), the threshold is 16 nights rather than one.

"Available" means accessible to you - not necessarily empty or reserved solely for you. The accommodation can be:

A property you own
A property you rent
A property owned or rented by a close relative where you can stay (subject to the 16-night rule)

A hotel room does not create an accommodation tie unless you stay in the same room or at the same establishment for 91 or more consecutive nights - an unusual scenario in practice.

Importantly, a property you own that is let to tenants at arm's length does not count. If your UK flat is occupied by paying tenants under a commercial lease for the full year, you don't have the accommodation tie solely by virtue of owning it. If, however, you retain a right of access - a room that tenants agree to vacate on demand, or a property with a break clause you exercise - the tie may still apply.

The parent's spare bedroom question is a very common one. If your parents have a bedroom that is available whenever you visit and you stay there for at least 16 nights in the tax year, you have an accommodation tie - even if there is no formal tenancy and no charge. The 16-night threshold (rather than one night) applies because this is a close relative's home.

Evidence: Property title deeds, lease agreements, correspondence with landlord, utility bills, bank statements showing rent payments, records of nights stayed (travel records, emails confirming visits).

Common pitfall: Assuming you need to own or rent property to have this tie. A family home where you have indefinite access is sufficient.

3. Work Tie

The rule: You work in the UK on 40 or more days in the tax year, where a "work day" is any day on which you perform more than 3 hours of work in the UK. Full detail: the work tie explained.

This applies to employed and self-employed work alike. Working from a UK location - your home, an office, a hotel room - counts as working in the UK. Travel time does not count as work, and neither does time spent preparing for work (packing, commuting) or undertaking training that is incidental to your role.

Note that the threshold is at or above 40, not above 40. Exactly 40 UK working days creates the work tie.

The 3-hour rule catches people who think that attending a morning meeting and leaving before lunch avoids this tie. If that meeting involved more than 3 hours of substantive work, the day counts. Many professional advisers counsel clients in borderline situations to keep careful contemporaneous records of their UK working hours.

Evidence: Employment contracts and payslips identifying UK work; client invoices with UK service addresses; diary and calendar records of UK working days; travel records correlating with UK office visits; timesheets or billing records.

Common pitfall: Treating travel to the UK as inherently not creating a work day. A business traveller who flies in, attends a 4-hour strategy meeting, and flies home has a UK work day - even if their contractual employer is overseas.

4. 90-Day Tie

The rule: You spent more than 90 days in the UK in either or both of the previous two tax years. Full detail: the 90-day tie explained.

This is a backward-looking tie: it is set by what you did in prior years, not the current year. You cannot reduce it by cutting your UK days this year. If you spent 95 days in the UK two years ago and 40 days last year, you have this tie - because the 95-day year was one of the relevant two years.

The 90-day tie is designed to capture habitual UK presence. Even if you've recently moved abroad and dramatically reduced your UK time, HMRC recognises that someone with a recent pattern of heavy UK presence is more likely to remain connected to the UK.

The days are counted using the same midnight rule as the rest of the SRT.

Evidence: Any records establishing your presence in the UK in the prior two years - passport stamps, boarding passes, hotel records, bank statements showing UK activity, HMRC records of prior UK residence.

Common pitfall: Forgetting about the previous year when planning the current year. Someone who moved abroad in September might have spent 100 days in the UK in the current tax year (April to September). The following year, they'll have the 90-day tie regardless of what they do.

5. Country Tie (Leavers Only)

The rule: You spend more days in the UK during the tax year than in any other single country. Full detail: the country tie explained.

This tie is only assessed against leavers - it is not available to be used against arrivers.

The test is relative, not absolute. It doesn't matter how many days you spend in the UK in isolation; it matters whether the UK beats every other country individually. If you spend 80 days in the UK, 70 days in France, and 60 days in Spain, the UK has more days than any single other country - country tie applies. If you spend 70 days in the UK and 80 days in France, France beats the UK - no country tie.

What about a tie? If you spend exactly equal nights in the UK and your highest other country - say 70 in each - the country tie does apply. HMRC's rule is that when two or more countries share the highest count and one of them is the UK, the UK wins automatically (RFIG20580).

Evidence: Comprehensive travel records showing country-by-country midnight counts - passport stamps, boarding pass records, visa records, hotel receipts.

Common pitfall: Leavers who split their time across many countries and assume the UK isn't "dominant" because they don't spend a lot of time there. A leaver spending 60 days in the UK, 50 days in the UAE, and 40 days in various other countries has the country tie - even though they spent only 60 UK days.

How the Threshold Tables Work

Not sure which ties you have? Work through the UK ties practical checklist — it steps through each tie in order with yes/no questions so you can establish your count before reading the tables below.

With your tie count established, you cross-reference it against your UK day count using the table for your category.

Leavers

Days in UK	Resident if you have…
Fewer than 16	Non-resident regardless of ties
16–45	4 or more ties
46–90	3 or more ties
91–120	2 or more ties
121–182	1 or more ties
183 or more	Resident (Automatic UK Test applies)

A leaver with all 5 ties can become UK resident after just 16 days. A leaver with no ties cannot become resident through the sufficient ties test alone - but in practice, someone with zero ties is almost certainly already caught by an automatic overseas test.

The 183-day rule is the most well-known threshold, but as this table shows, it is only the ceiling - not the floor - of UK residence day counts.

Arrivers

Days in UK	Resident if you have…
Fewer than 46	Non-resident regardless of ties
46–90	All 4 ties
91–120	3 or more ties
121–182	2 or more ties
183 or more	Resident (Automatic UK Test applies)

Arrivers get a higher threshold at every band. The toughest band (46–90 days) requires all four ties for an arriver to be resident, compared to only three for a leaver in the same range.

The full threshold tables - with all day bands for both leavers and arrivers - are also available on the UK day limits reference page and in the complete UK ties and day limits reference table.

Borderline Scenarios

"I'm informally separated from my UK-based spouse"

Unless you have a court order or a formal deed of separation, you still have the family tie. Many couples separate de facto - living apart, possibly seeing other people - without obtaining legal documentation. From HMRC's perspective, the family tie still applies. If residence planning is important, formalising the separation legally is significant.

"My UK employer lets me work remotely from abroad, but I come in occasionally"

Count your UK working days carefully. If you attend UK meetings, site visits, or the UK office on more than 39 days and work more than 3 hours on each, you have the work tie. Many people in remote-but-occasional arrangements undercount their working days because they don't distinguish between days that involve work and days that don't.

"My parents have a spare bedroom I've always used"

Because this is a close relative's home, the threshold is higher: the room must be available for 91 or more consecutive days in the year and you must stay there for at least 16 nights (not just one night, which is the threshold for other accommodation). It doesn't matter that you're not paying rent, that you don't have a key, or that there's no formal arrangement. Availability and use are what matter - but for close relatives' homes, occasional one-off stays won't trigger the tie.

"I've only been non-resident for two years - does the 90-day tie still apply?"

The 90-day tie looks at the previous two tax years. If you were UK resident three years ago but had reduced UK presence in the two years since, you need to check your actual day counts for each of those two years. If either year involved more than 90 days, the tie applies. If both years were under 90 days, it doesn't.

"I split my time fairly evenly between the UK and two other countries"

If you're a leaver, check the country tie carefully. Even if the UK isn't where you spend the most time overall, the country tie only requires more UK days than any single other country - not more than all other countries combined.

Planning Considerations

Understanding your tie count is not just about determining current residence status - it also informs what you need to change to alter your status in future years.

If you're actively monitoring how your day count stacks up against your tie-based threshold, the Day Budget Dashboard tracks your UK days across the year and flags when you're approaching a limit.

Some ties are easier to remove than others:

Work tie: Reduce UK working days below 40. This requires genuine change - not just informal arrangements that HMRC might look through.
90-day tie: This expires naturally. If you reduced UK days below 90 in both of the last two years, the tie falls away.
Country tie: Spending more nights in another country than in the UK removes this tie. Some people shift their primary base to achieve this.
Accommodation tie: If you no longer have available UK accommodation - sold the property, no longer have family access - the tie ends.
Family tie: This is the hardest to change. It requires either your family member to cease being UK resident, or a formal legal separation.

Artificial arrangements - maintaining notional accommodation you never use, or paper employment arrangements - will be scrutinised by HMRC. The ties test is meant to reflect genuine connections, and HMRC has the power to look through arrangements that are commercially unusual.

Evidence and Record-Keeping

Whatever your tie position, the burden of proving your residence status lies with you. HMRC can enquire into residence for up to 12 years in some circumstances. Good records should include:

A contemporaneous diary or calendar recording where you were each day and what you did
Travel records: boarding passes, passport stamps, visa records
Employment and work records: contracts, invoices, timesheets, email trails from UK visits
Accommodation records: lease agreements, utility bills, correspondence about access
Family records: school correspondence, documentation of days spent with children

Digital records - calendar apps, email timestamps showing location, expense claims - are increasingly accepted as supporting evidence, but a structured diary remains the gold standard.

When to Seek Professional Advice

The sufficient ties test rewards careful analysis, but it penalises guesswork. Consider professional advice if:

You are a leaver with 3 or more ties and your UK day count is close to a threshold
You are unsure whether a particular arrangement creates an accommodation or work tie
Your family situation is in flux - a separation, a child moving abroad for education, a partner taking a UK secondment
You have been assessed as non-resident but a subsequent HMRC enquiry could lead to a different conclusion
You are planning to reduce your UK presence and want to understand which ties to address first

A tax adviser can also help you understand how the ties test interacts with double tax treaties, which may produce a different result for treaty purposes even where the domestic UK SRT analysis is clear.

The free SRT calculator works through all three stages of the test based on your specific facts — automatic overseas tests first, then automatic UK tests, then the sufficient ties test for both leavers and arrivers.