Check if you can claim the 4-year foreign income and gains regime
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-05)

Find out about the foreign income and gains (FIG) regime which replaced the remittance basis on 6 April 2025.

On 6 April 2025 the 4-year foreign income and gains regime replaced the remittance basis (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/residence-domicile-and-remittance-basis-rules-uk-tax-liability). If you make a claim under the regime, you’ll not pay tax on your eligible foreign income and gains.

Check if you’re eligible

The 4-year foreign income and gains regime is only available if you’re a qualifying resident.

You’re a qualifying resident if you’re:

a UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) tax resident under the statutory residence test (SRT) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt)

still within your first 4 years as a UK tax resident following at least a 10-year period as a non-UK tax resident

You can read more about qualifying resident in manual RFIG44000 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-and-fig-regime-manual/rfig44000).

If your first 4 years as a UK tax resident started before 6 April 2025, you can use the regime:
- from the tax year 2025 to 2026
- up to and including the last tax year of your 4-year period
If you leave the UK temporarily during the 4-year period and become a non-UK tax resident, you:
- cannot claim the regime for the tax years you temporarily left the UK
- can claim the regime for any of the qualifying tax years remaining on your return to the UK as a UK tax resident
You cannot roll any unused years over to a later year. The regime is only available for a maximum period of 4 consecutive years beginning when your UK tax residency started.

Example — UK tax residency started before 6 April 2025

You were a UK tax resident from 6 May 2022 after a period of 10 consecutive tax years as a non-UK tax resident from 5 August 2012 up to and including 5 May 2022.

Your first 4 years as a UK tax resident will start in tax year 2022 to 2023. As the regime was introduced in tax year 2025 to 2026, you’ll only have one year of eligibility — the tax year 2025 to 2026.

Example — temporarily becoming a non-UK tax resident within the 4-year period

You’re eligible for the regime for 4 tax years, starting in tax year 2025 to 2026. In the tax year 2027 to 2028 you return to a country outside the UK and are temporarily a non-UK tax resident. You return to the UK as a UK tax resident in the tax year 2028 to 2029.

You’re eligible to claim the regime for the 3 tax years:
- 2025 to 2026
- 2026 to 2027
- 2028 to 2029
You cannot claim the regime in the tax year 2027 to 2028 as you temporarily returned to a country outside the UK as a non-UK tax resident.

Check which income and gains you can claim for

The types of foreign income which are eligible for relief includes:
- profits of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK
- profits of an overseas property business
- dividends from non-UK resident companies
- interest, such as interest paid on a foreign bank account
You can read more about qualifying foreign income in manual RFIG45100 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-and-fig-regime-manual/rfig45100) and foreign capital gains in manual RFIG45500 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-and-fig-regime-manual/rfig45500).

Income from foreign earnings and foreign specific employment income will not be eligible for relief under this regime, but you may be able to get relief under the Overseas Workday Relief regime (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/globally-mobile-employees).

How to claim relief

You’ll need to make a claim under the regime on your Self Assessment tax return. Read about registering for Self Assessment (https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/registering) if you’re not already registered.

You can choose which foreign income and gains to claim relief on. You do not need to claim relief on all of your sources of foreign income and foreign gains.

Allowances you’ll lose

You’ll get tax relief on the foreign income or gains you claim for, but you’ll lose the following allowances:

tax-free allowances for Income Tax (https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates) and Capital Gains Tax (https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax/allowances)

Married Couples Allowance (https://www.gov.uk/married-couples-allowance/what-youll-get) (if you’re already eligible for it)

Marriage Allowance (https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance) (if you’re already eligible for it)

Blind Person’s Allowance (https://www.gov.uk/blind-persons-allowance) (if you’re already eligible it)

Making a claim under the regime will mean your foreign income will be taken into account when working out your adjusted net income. Your adjusted net income is used to work out your:

entitlements to tax-free childcare (https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare) and Free Childcare for Working Parents (https://www.gov.uk/check-eligible-free-childcare-if-youre-working)

obligations under the High Income Child Benefit Charge (https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge)