Sufficient ties test 2026: Tables A and B and the five UK ties

The sufficient ties test is the last layer of the UK's Statutory Residence Test, and you reach it only if no automatic overseas test and no automatic UK test has settled your year. It works as a sliding scale between two things: the days you spent in the UK in the tax year and the number of connections you kept there. HMRC recognises five such connections, called ties: family, accommodation, work, the 90-day tie and the country tie. The fifth only counts if you were UK resident in at least one of the 3 previous tax years, which is why a person who is leaving faces stricter limits than a person who is arriving. A year treated as a split year counts as a full year of UK residence for that look-back, according to HMRC's manual. More ties mean fewer days. Having a tie never makes you resident by itself, as HMRC's guidance on family ties points out: what matters is the combination.

Table A and Table B, and which one is yours

Everything turns on one question: were you UK resident in any of the 3 tax years before this one? Yes means Table A, often called the leaver's table. No means Table B, the arriver's table. RDR3 and RFIG20520 give the same figures:

Read the other way round, the tables say how far your ties let you go. Our engine computes the limit directly, always assuming the automatic UK tests do not catch you first:

The cliff edges fall at the top of each band. On Table A with 3 ties, 45 days keeps you non-resident and 46 does not. One extra midnight, in the wrong year, is enough.

Family tie: partner, or a child under 18

You have this tie if your husband, wife or civil partner, unless separated, or a partner you live with as such, is UK resident for the year, or if your child under 18 is. Separation means by court order, by deed, or in circumstances likely to be permanent. Partners can live together in the UK or overseas: the tie does not need a shared UK home.

The child rule has an exit. You have no tie with a minor child if you spend time with that child in person in the UK on fewer than 61 days in the tax year. Any day or part of a day counts, and only days in the UK: in HMRC's example, Pierre spends 70 days with his 15-year-old daughter, but 35 of them are in Paris and Spain, so only 35 count and he has no family tie. If the child turns 18 during the year, you look only at the days before the birthday. Stepchildren are not included unless adopted.

A second exit covers schooling. A UK-resident child under 18 in full-time education in the UK creates no tie if the child would not be resident without the time in education and spends fewer than 21 days in the UK outside term-time. Half-terms count as term-time. Clara, 14, boards in the UK while her parents live in Dubai. She spends 17 days in the UK outside term: no tie for her parents.

There is a circular case HMRC clears up. George and Mary each spend 140 days in the UK and each has an accommodation tie. If each one's residence could rest on the other's, both would tip over. The rule says a family tie based on that same relationship is ignored when deciding whether the other person is resident, so each has one tie and neither is resident.

Accommodation tie: one night can be enough

This is the tie people least expect. You have it if you have a place to live in the UK that is available to you for a continuous period of 91 days or more during the tax year, and you spend at least one night there. Ownership is irrelevant: HMRC lists a home, a holiday home, a temporary retreat, or other accommodation you can live in when you are in the UK. Gaps of fewer than 16 days do not break the 91 days, and each place is tested on its own.

A close relative's home is treated more kindly: there, it takes 16 nights or more. Close relative means a parent, a grandparent, a brother or sister, or a child or grandchild aged 18 or over, by blood, half-blood, marriage, civil partnership or adoption. So the spare room at your parents' house is free up to 15 nights, while a flat a friend leaves at your disposal for 91 days or more can count after one night.

Work, 90 days and country: the three you can measure

Work tie. More than 3 hours of work a day in the UK on at least 40 days in the year, whether continuous or not. A day of 3 hours exactly does not reach it. Special rules apply to some crew and transport jobs, which HMRC calls relevant jobs.

90-day tie. More than 90 days in the UK in either or both of the 2 previous tax years. Each year stands alone and they are not added together. HMRC's Mo spends 50 days in each of the 2 prior years and has no tie. Finn spent 98 days in the earlier year and only 51 in the later one, and he has the tie. In the check for the deeming rule's 3 ties, this tie looks at midnights only.

Country tie. Only on Table A. You have it if the UK is the country where you were present at midnight for the greatest number of days in the year. It is not a majority of the year: with 40 UK midnights against 35 in each of several other countries, the UK wins. A tie between the UK and another country also gives you the tie, and a state or canton counts as its country. Nomads with scattered years should watch this one, because a modest UK total can still be the largest single figure.

Why the calculator tests ties against your dates

Ties are yes or no, but the day count underneath them is not something you should estimate. A family visit that crosses 5 April splits into two tax years. A morning departure removes a day at midnight, unless the deeming rule adds it back. And two previous tax years feed the 90-day tie. Enter your stays and answer the five questions: the calculator gives your table, the ties it counted, the ties you would need, and the days you have left. Three of HMRC's worked cases, run through the same engine:

The calculator cannot judge whether a place is really available to you, or whether a relationship has ended for good. Those answers are yours to give and to prove. HMRC's manual suggests keeping travel records, and the dates a home was bought, sold, let or unavailable. For the wider test, return to the Statutory Residence Test calculator; for how each day is counted, see how many days you can spend in the UK. The Taxlag app can hold your dates through the year if you would rather not rebuild them in April.