Compare UK tax with and without a claim under the 4-year foreign income and gains (FIG) regime for new UK residents.
Source: GOV.UK — Check if you can claim the 4-year foreign income and gains regime
By Konstantin Iakovlev · Founder, Calks.uk
Last updated: · Verified against HMRC and GOV.UK 2026/27 rates
Rates verified: 28 September 2026
After at least 10 years non-resident (1 = first year)
Tax if you claim FIG
£16,460.00
No Personal Allowance
Tax if you don't claim
£27,432.00
Foreign income taxed
Claiming saves £10,972.00 this year
Total Income Tax (claiming FIG)
£16,460.00
Income after income tax (before NI): £83,540.00
Tax on UK Income
£16,460.00
Tax on Foreign Income
Exempt (FIG)
New rules from April 2025:
The old remittance basis is abolished and domicile no longer matters. In your first 4 years of UK residence after at least 10 years abroad you can claim the Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime, year by year, on your Self Assessment return. A claim exempts foreign income and gains but costs you the Personal Allowance and the Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for that year. Foreign employment earnings are not covered. After 4 years, all worldwide income is taxable. No more £30K/£60K annual charges. Figures use rUK income tax rates and ignore foreign tax credit relief.
Disclaimer
This calculator is for guidance only. It is not financial or tax advice: check anything you rely on against the official source or a qualified adviser. Rates and figures come from HMRC and GOV.UK and are reviewed for the 2026/27 tax year. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to our servers.
How It Works
The UK scrapped the remittance basis for non-domiciled residents in April 2025 and put a four-year Foreign Income and Gains regime in its place. A new arrival who has not been UK resident in any of the previous ten tax years can elect to pay no UK tax on foreign income and foreign gains for their first four years here. UK source income, meaning employment earnings and UK property, is taxed from day one regardless of the election.
What the election covers is broad. Rents, dividends and interest from non-UK sources fall outside the charge, and so do foreign capital gains, but foreign employment earnings do not. Bringing the money into the UK causes no problem, unlike the old remittance basis, where remitting funds was what triggered the tax. The price of a claim is the Personal Allowance and the Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount, both lost for that year, so with modest foreign income a claim can cost more than it saves. Keep bank statements and contracts that show where income came from. Distributions from trusts follow separate and more complicated rules.
From year five onwards, worldwide income and gains become fully taxable in the UK. Long-standing UK residents do not get the new regime at all, but a transitional facility running until 5 April 2028 softens the change for them. The Temporary Repatriation Facility lets foreign income and gains that arose under the old remittance basis be brought into the UK at a reduced rate of 12% in 2025/26 and 2026/27, rising to 15% in 2027/28.
Eligibility is narrow by design. You need a clean ten-year gap in UK residence before arriving, and the four years run from your first year of UK residence. Someone who arrived in 2022/23 or later after such a gap can claim for whatever is left of their four years from 2025/26. It is aimed at internationally mobile people on medium-term postings of three or four years rather than at people settling permanently. There is no domicile test, so a British national coming home after ten years abroad qualifies on the same terms, and domicile no longer matters for income tax, Capital Gains Tax or Inheritance Tax.
Inheritance Tax moved onto a residence test at the same time. Before April 2025 a non-domiciled person was liable only on UK assets. Now anyone resident in the UK for at least ten of the previous twenty tax years is liable on worldwide assets, and the liability continues after they leave: for 3 years after 10 to 13 years of residence, one more year for each further year, up to 10 years for someone resident for 20 years or more. This is a significant change for people who built up assets abroad while living here on the old assumption that only UK property was in scope.
Timing matters more than most other decisions. Arriving at the start of a tax year in April gives a full year of protection rather than a broken one. Realising capital gains before UK residence begins keeps them outside the UK net entirely. When the four years are up the choice is between accepting full UK tax on worldwide income and moving elsewhere, and the sums involved are large enough that specialist advice is worth paying for. Italy, Dubai and Switzerland absorbed a noticeable outflow of wealthy residents across 2024 and 2025.
Example: New arrival, £200,000 foreign income in Year 2
- UK residence: year 2, after more than 10 years abroad (eligible for FIG)
- Foreign income: £200,000, exempt from UK tax if you claim FIG
- Claiming FIG, the £60,000 UK salary is taxed with no Personal Allowance: £37,700 × 20% + £22,300 × 40% = £16,460
- Not claiming, £260,000 is taxed with the allowance fully tapered away: £37,700 × 20% + £87,440 × 40% + £134,860 × 45% = £103,203
- Saving from the claim: £103,203 − £16,460 = £86,743
Source: GOV.UK — Check if you can claim the 4-year foreign income and gains regime
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who qualifies for the four-year foreign income exemption?
- People in their first four years of UK residence after at least ten tax years of non-residence. They can claim to pay no UK tax on foreign income and foreign gains for those years, at the cost of the Personal Allowance and the Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount for each year they claim. Anyone who arrived in 2022/23 or later after such a gap can use the years left from 2025/26. There is no domicile test, so returning British nationals qualify too, while existing long-term residents fall outside it.
- What happens after the four years of FIG protection end?
- From the fifth year of UK residence, worldwide income and gains are taxable in the UK in the ordinary way, with no remittance basis to fall back on. Some people plan to leave before that point, others accept the change and stay. The Temporary Repatriation Facility separately allows foreign income and gains from the old remittance basis years to be brought in at 12% in 2025/26 and 2026/27, rising to 15% in 2027/28, after which it closes on 5 April 2028.
- Does the new regime change Inheritance Tax for non-doms?
- Yes, and it is arguably the bigger change. Inheritance Tax now follows residence rather than domicile. Anyone UK resident for at least ten of the previous twenty years is liable on worldwide assets, where a non-domiciled person used to be liable only on UK assets. The liability does not end the day you leave either. It runs on for 3 years after 10 to 13 years of residence, one more year for each further year, up to 10 years for someone resident for 20 years or more.
- Can I bring foreign money into the UK under FIG?
- Yes, freely. Under the four-year regime the exemption depends on where the income arose, not on whether you remit it, so foreign income and gains can be brought into the UK and spent here without triggering a charge. That is the main practical difference from the old remittance basis, which taxed the money once it entered the country. Keep records showing the foreign source, because that is what the exemption rests on.