Arriving in the UK as a New Resident
Written and reviewed by the Non-Dom Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 28 July 2026.
You have moved to the UK, or you are about to. The remittance basis is gone: from 6 April 2025 every UK resident is taxed on the arising basis on worldwide income and gains. What replaces the old planning is the 4-year FIG regime, and it is only useful if you claim it correctly and on time.
We establish when your UK residence actually began under the statutory residence test, work out whether you meet the 10-year prior non-residence condition, and set up your first Self Assessment return so the relief is claimed rather than assumed. If you are also thinking about eventual departure, leaving the UK is the other side of the same plan.
Your First Years of UK Residence
We confirm your residence position, test eligibility for the 4-year FIG regime, and prepare the returns for each year the relief applies. The regime gives 100% relief on foreign income and gains for the first 4 tax years of UK residence, provided you were non-UK resident for the 10 consecutive tax years before you arrived. The four-year clock runs from when your residence started, including years before 6 April 2025, so part of your window may already have passed.
The claim is made on the Self Assessment return, not by election in advance. We also flag the trade-off: claiming FIG for a year forfeits your personal allowance of £12,570 and the £3,000 capital gains annual exempt amount for that year, so the relief is not automatically worth taking in a low-foreign-income year.
Where New Arrivals Come Unstuck
The common error is treating the old remittance basis as if it still exists. It does not. Another is miscounting the four-year window, because the clock does not wait for you to notice it; a person who became UK resident in 2023 has already used two of the four years. We check the count against your actual arrival, not the year you started earning UK income.
Split-year treatment, day counting, and the ties under the residence test also catch people who assume residence begins on a tidy date. We work from your travel and accommodation records rather than a rounded estimate.
How We Handle Your Arrival
We start with a residence review, gather the foreign income and gains figures, and decide with you, year by year, whether to claim FIG. We then prepare and file the Self Assessment return and keep a record of the window so no year is missed.
We advise on the tax and file the return. We do not recommend investments, offshore bonds or structures, and we do not sell any product.
The Fee for Arrival Work
We work to a fixed fee agreed before we start, based on the number of returns and the complexity of your foreign income. You know the figure before any work begins, and it does not change because a claim turned out to be worth more than expected.