Form P86 no longer exists. HMRC withdrew it on 1 June 2010, so if you’ve recently moved to the UK and been told to file one, you don’t need to. The notification function was folded into three existing processes: employees are reported through their employer’s payroll using a starter checklist, the self-employed register using form CWF1, and anyone else with income that requires a tax return registers for Self Assessment using form SA1. Which route applies to you depends entirely on how you earn money once you arrive.1HM Revenue & Customs. Employment Income Manual – EIM42890 – Residence: Taxpayer Coming to the United Kingdom: Issue of Form P86
Each of these routes does what P86 used to do. It puts you on HMRC’s records, establishes your residence position, and produces either a PAYE tax code or a Unique Taxpayer Reference so HMRC can track what you owe.
If You’re Starting a UK Job
Your employer handles the notification for you through Real Time Information, the payroll reporting system that submits your details to HMRC each pay run. You help by filling in a starter checklist, which your new employer will hand you because you won’t have a P45 from a previous UK job.
The checklist collects your name, address, National Insurance number if you already have one, your job start date, and any student loan information. It also asks you to pick one of three statements about your employment history; a first UK job usually calls for statement A, which tells the employer to apply the standard tax code.2GOV.UK. Starter Checklist if You’re Starting a New Job
Once your employer submits that first payroll return, you’re in the system. The standard tax code is 1257L, reflecting the £12,570 personal allowance — the amount you can earn in a tax year before income tax starts.3GOV.UK. Understanding Your Employees’ Tax Codes If you’ve been posted to the UK temporarily, have your passport number ready when completing the form. You can email it, post it, or hand it to your employer.
If You’re Self-Employed or Have Other Reportable Income
PAYE only covers employment income. Foreign investment returns, rental profits, capital gains, and self-employment earnings all need a Self Assessment return, and you have to register with HMRC before you can file one.
For self-employment, use form CWF1. For everything else — overseas dividends, foreign bank interest, property income abroad, and similar — use form SA1. You can submit SA1 online through your Government Gateway account or print and post it. HMRC usually responds within about 21 days, though busy periods stretch that; your UTR may show up sooner in the HMRC app or your personal tax account if you registered online.4GOV.UK. Register for Self Assessment if You Are Not Self-Employed
The date to write down is 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you first have reportable income. If you arrive during the 2026–27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) and need to file a return, HMRC must hear from you by 5 October 2027. Miss it and you can be penalised.5GOV.UK. Self Assessment Tax Returns: Deadlines
Whether You Actually Count as UK Resident
Notifying HMRC is one thing; whether you’re taxed on worldwide income or only on UK-source income depends on your residence status under the Statutory Residence Test introduced in Finance Act 2013. The test is applied in a strict order: the automatic overseas tests come first, then the automatic UK tests, and if neither settles it, the sufficient ties test does.6GOV.UK. RDR3: Statutory Residence Test (SRT) Notes
Three automatic UK tests cover most new arrivals. You’re UK resident for the tax year if any of these apply:
- You spend 183 days or more in the UK during the tax year.
- You have a home in the UK for a continuous 91-day period with at least 30 of those days falling in the tax year, you’re present there on 30 or more days in the year, and you either have no overseas home or spend fewer than 30 days in it.
- You work full-time in the UK across a 365-day period that falls within the tax year, with more than 75% of your working days in the UK.
Most people relocating for work meet either the 183-day test or the full-time work test in their first full UK tax year. The tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, and being in the UK at midnight counts as a day of presence.7GOV.UK. Tax on Foreign Income: UK Residence and Tax
Split Year Treatment in Your Arrival Year
Arriving partway through a tax year raises an obvious question: should HMRC tax you as UK resident for the months before you even landed? Split year treatment answers no. The year is divided into an overseas part, where you’re treated as non-resident, and a UK part, where you’re treated as resident.
For arrivals, Cases 4 through 8 of the split year rules are the relevant ones. Case 4 is the most common: it applies when you start having your only home in the UK during the year. You need to have been non-resident in the previous tax year and to have had no UK ties between 6 April and the date you established your UK home. Once the only-home test is met, the UK part of your year begins the next day, and only income from that point forward is taxed as resident income.8GOV.UK. Statutory Residence Test (SRT): Split Year Treatment: Case 4 – The Overseas and UK Parts of the Tax Year
If more than one case fits your circumstances, a priority ordering rule picks the one that generally produces the shortest overseas portion. Split year treatment isn’t given automatically; you claim it on your Self Assessment return.9GOV.UK. Statutory Residence Test (SRT): Split Year Treatment: When Split Year Treatment Will Apply
The 4-Year Foreign Income and Gains Regime
If you’re arriving in the UK after a long stretch abroad, this is the relief most likely to matter. The 4-year foreign income and gains regime replaced the old remittance basis on 6 April 2025.
You qualify if you become UK tax resident under the SRT after at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence. During your first four years as a UK resident, you can claim relief from UK tax on eligible foreign income and gains, including overseas trade profits, foreign property income, dividends from non-UK companies, interest from foreign accounts, and capital gains on non-UK assets.10GOV.UK. Check if You Can Claim the 4-Year Foreign Income and Gains Regime
There are trade-offs. Claiming the regime for a tax year costs you the income tax personal allowance (£12,570), the capital gains tax annual exempt amount, and any marriage-related allowances. With substantial foreign income, the relief easily outweighs the lost allowances. With modest foreign income, it may not.
The four-year clock starts in your first year of UK residence and runs consecutively. You can’t pause it or bank unused years. If you leave the UK and become non-resident during the four-year window, you lose those years but can still claim the regime for any qualifying years remaining when you come back. Foreign employment income and certain foreign-specific employment income aren’t eligible, so wages earned overseas for a UK employer are taxed normally.10GOV.UK. Check if You Can Claim the 4-Year Foreign Income and Gains Regime
Getting a National Insurance Number
Your National Insurance number is your identifier across the UK tax and benefits system. If you’ve never had one, you apply once you’re physically in the UK, live here, have the right to work, and are working, looking for work, or have a job offer. The application is online and takes up to four weeks. You can start working before the number arrives as long as you can prove your right to work, and your employer will use a temporary NI number on payroll until the real one comes through.11GOV.UK. Apply for a National Insurance Number
Before applying, check whether you already have one from a previous UK stay. A biometric residence permit shows the number on the back. If you have an eVisa, log into your UK Visas and Immigration account. Applying for a duplicate when you already have a number creates unnecessary complications.
What Happens If You Don’t Notify HMRC
HMRC can charge penalties when you fail to notify a circumstance that creates a tax liability, and becoming UK resident with taxable income is exactly that. The penalty depends on your behaviour and how quickly you come forward.
For a non-deliberate failure where you tell HMRC within 12 months of the tax becoming due, the penalty runs from 0% to 30% of the tax you should have paid. If HMRC discovers the failure first (a prompted disclosure), the minimum rises to 10%. Wait longer than 12 months and the minimum for a prompted disclosure climbs to 20%. Deliberate failures run from 20% to 70% of the unpaid tax, and deliberate failures with active concealment run from 30% to 100%. HMRC will not charge a penalty at all if you can demonstrate a reasonable excuse for a non-deliberate failure, but not knowing the rules rarely qualifies on its own.12HM Revenue & Customs. Compliance Checks – Penalties for Failure to Notify – CC/FS11
A Note for US Citizens
Registering with HMRC does not end any US tax obligations you already have. American citizens and green card holders keep their IRS filing duties wherever they live, including annual returns and FBAR filings once foreign account balances exceed the reporting thresholds.13Internal Revenue Service. Details on Reporting Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts The US-UK double taxation treaty prevents most double taxation of the same income, but the filing obligations on both sides continue regardless of whether tax is owed.