United Kingdom: how days are counted

At a glance

The test: Statutory Residence Test. Day conditions at 16, 46 and 183 days, plus a ties table that sets a day limit for each number of UK ties.
Period: UK tax year, 6 April to 5 April.
What counts as a day: A day on which you are in the UK at the end of the day (midnight). A day you leave before midnight does not count, except under the deeming rule.

The rule

The Statutory Residence Test is in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013. Each tax year is looked at on its own. Day counts matter in three places: the automatic overseas tests, the automatic UK test and the sufficient ties test.

Automatic overseas tests: fewer than 16 days in the UK in the tax year, if you were UK resident in at least one of the 3 previous tax years; fewer than 46 days, if you were resident in none of them. A third test, for full-time work abroad, also needs fewer than 91 days in the UK.

Automatic UK test: at least 183 days in the UK in the tax year (Sch 45 para 7).

Sufficient ties test: the days you spend set how many UK ties are enough. If you were resident in one or more of the 3 previous years: more than 15 and up to 45 days needs at least 4 ties; more than 45 and up to 90 needs at least 3; more than 90 and up to 120 needs at least 2; more than 120 needs at least 1.

If you were resident in none of the 3 previous years: more than 45 and up to 90 days needs all 4 ties; more than 90 and up to 120 needs at least 3; more than 120 needs at least 2.

A day counts if you are present in the UK at the end of it (para 22(1)). Two exceptions: you arrive as a passenger, leave the next day and do nothing substantially unrelated to passing through; or exceptional circumstances beyond your control keep you here, limited to 60 days a tax year.

Deeming rule (para 23): if you were resident in at least one of the 3 previous tax years, have at least 3 UK ties and have more than 30 qualifying days, each qualifying day after the 30th counts as a UK day. A qualifying day is a day you are in the UK at some point but not at the end of the day.

How Atrium counts it

Atrium counts nights. A closed UK stay counts one day for each midnight spent in the UK, and the day you leave never counts. Arrive and leave on the same Monday: 0 days. Monday to Tuesday: 1 day. Tuesday to Thursday: 2 days. An open stay counts today provisionally.

Dates use London time (GMT or BST), so midnight and the 6 April and 5 April boundaries are judged in UK time, wherever your phone is.

Atrium applies the deeming rule. It treats the departure day of a stay and each same-day trip as a qualifying day, counts each date once, and adds the days over 30 when you tell Atrium you were UK resident in a previous year and have 3 or more ties.

Atrium is more cautious than the statute in two places. It counts transit nights, which the statute can exclude, and shows how many nights may be transit so you can raise them with HMRC and your evidence. It does not remove exceptional-circumstances days.

Atrium shows days left before the condition that applies to your answers: 16 or 46 days, the ties-table limit for your number of ties, or 183 days. It does not decide the work tests, split-year treatment or the only-home test. Those stay with your adviser.

What catches people out

Late departures. The day is decided by where you are at midnight. Atrium flags UK departures after 23:00 and suggests you keep the airline record of the actual departure time.
Leaving days add up. With 3 or more UK ties, each departure day and each same-day trip is a qualifying day, and those past the 30th count as UK days.
A transit night is not automatically excluded. HMRC says seeing friends or spending time at a UK home during the stop is substantially unrelated to passage (RFIG20730).
Ties lower the limit. For someone who was resident in a previous year, with 4 ties the ties condition is reached at day 16; with 0 ties only the 183-day condition remains.
The 60-day exceptional-circumstances relief is not automatic. It needs circumstances beyond your control and an intention to leave as soon as they permit.

Cases

Decided case

Parker v HMRC: three transit nights and one storm night

First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) · 2026 · [2026] UKFTT 652 (TC) Source

Michael Parker was in the UK at midnight on 100 days in 2019/20. HMRC accepted that 7 did not count under the 2020 coronavirus provision. The tribunal held that 3 more nights were transit (he arrived as a passenger, stayed at an airport hotel and left the next day) and 1 was a night when Storm Jorge closed Dublin airport and his flight was cancelled. That left 89 days, under the 91-day limit in the third automatic overseas test.

Which nights count can decide an automatic test. Atrium counts all four nights as UK nights and flags possible transit nights, so keep the travel records. HMRC could still appeal; the decision is dated 1 May 2026.

Decided case

Gaines-Cooper v HMRC: a day count was not the whole test

UK Supreme Court · 2011 · R (Davies and James) v HMRC; R (Gaines-Cooper) v HMRC [2011] UKSC 47 Source

This case came under the old rules, before the statutory test began on 6 April 2013. HMRC's guidance booklet IR20 said a person who went abroad for a settled purpose and visited the UK for under six months a year, averaging under 91 days, would be treated as non-resident. Mr Gaines-Cooper kept homes in England and his family lived here. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals: the guidance required a distinct break in the pattern of life in the UK, not only a low day count.

Under the old guidance, days were one factor. The statutory test now sets the day limits, but UK ties still change them, which is why Atrium asks about ties.

Sources

Based on the sources above, last reviewed on 2026-10-04. Educational content, not tax advice. Atrium counts days; whether those days make you resident is for you and your adviser to decide.

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