Guidance

HS266 Foreign income and gains (FIG) regime (2026)

Published 6 April 2026

The FIG regime

From 6 April 2025, the remittance basis of taxation has been abolished, with the concept of domicile as a relevant connecting factor in the tax system having been replaced by a system based on tax residence. From this date, all UK residents are taxed on the arising basis of assessment on their worldwide income and gains.

The FIG regime was introduced on 6 April 2025 to replace the remittance basis of assessment and enables ‘qualifying new residents’ to claim UK tax relief on foreign income and gains that arise during their first 4 years of UK residence.

Who can claim relief

You’re a qualifying new resident if it is one of your first 4 years of UK residence after a period of at least 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence, and you’re not a member of the House of Commons or House of Lords. UK residence is determined by the statutory residence test (SRT) — see RDR3 Guidance Note: Statutory Residence Test (SRT). 

The FIG regime applies for up to 4 consecutive tax years starting from the year you become UK resident, and you’ll need to make a claim for every year you want the relief to apply to your chosen foreign income or your chosen foreign gains, or both. For example, you can make a claim for year 1 but choose not to make a claim for year 2, but can still make a claim for years 3 and 4. If you don’t make a claim for a particular year, you won’t be able to roll unused years over to a later year. 

If your 4 years as a UK resident started before 6 April 2025, you can use the regime from the 2025 to 2026 tax year up to and including the last tax year of your 4-year period. This means that you can use the FIG regime if you became UK resident from the 2022 to 2023 tax year.

If you make a claim under the FIG regime, you won’t pay tax on your qualifying foreign income and gains on which you have made a claim for relief. You don’t have to bring your tax-relieved foreign income and gains to the UK but, if you choose to, there is no tax liability when you do. 

Example

Ama returns to the UK in 2025-26 after 12 years living in Ghana. She decides to make a claim for foreign income under the FIG regime in 2025-26 (year 1) on her 2025-26 tax return. Ama is free to bring her relieved income to the UK at any time without any UK tax liability.

Ama decides not to make any claims for 2026-27 and 2027-28 (years 2 and 3) so pays UK tax on small amounts of foreign income arising in those 2 years. Ama is also free to bring her taxed income and gains to the UK at any time without any further UK tax liability.

In 2028-29 (year 4) she decides to make a foreign income claim under the FIG regime for that year and so makes the claim in her 2028-29 tax return. She does not have any foreign gains in 2028-29 so does not need to make a foreign gain claim.

In 2029-30 Ama is not eligible to claim the FIG regime for income or gains, even though she only made foreign income claims for 2 years (2025-26 and 2028-29), because it is her fifth year of UK residence following her 12 years of non-UK residence. The only possibility for Ama to claim relief under the FIG regime in future is if she becomes non-UK resident for a period of at least 10 consecutive tax years and then returns to the UK following that period.

How to claim relief 

You must complete the relevant boxes on the ‘Residence and foreign income and gains (FIG) regime etc’ pages (SA109) of your Self Assessment tax return and then claim the amount of relief on the relevant supplementary page. Which supplementary page you use (in addition to SA109) will depend on the income and gains that you want to be relieved. You don’t need to claim relief on all of your sources of foreign income and foreign gains. However, if you want to claim an amount of relief on any foreign income then you must make a foreign income claim, and if you want to claim an amount of relief on any foreign gains you must make a foreign gain claim. You can make both claims or just one, for example, you only need to make a foreign income claim if all you want to relieve is foreign income. You make these claims by ticking the appropriate box or boxes:

• box 28 to claim relief on your foreign income

• box 29 to claim relief on your foreign gains

• box 30 if you have UK income or gains deemed to be foreign under the qualifying asset holding company (QAHC) rules

You can claim an amount of relief equal to the amount of eligible foreign income and gains that are declared on your tax return for that year (see below for the types of income and gains that are eligible). The amount of relief must be claimed in the relevant supplementary pages of the tax return. Claims can be made on the following pages, depending on the type of income or gain you are claiming relief on:

• ‘Self-employment (full)’ pages (SA103F) — for your overseas trade profits

• ‘Partnership (full)’ pages (SA104F) — for your share of overseas trade profits from a partnership

• ‘Foreign’ pages (SA106) — for most types of foreign income

• ‘Trusts etc’ (SA107) — for foreign estate income

• ‘Capital gains summary’ pages (SA108) — for foreign capital gains

There is no limit to the amount of relief which may be claimed during the period that you’re a qualifying new resident. However, you must claim for each amount of foreign income, from each source, that you want to be relieved. For example, if you have foreign interest from savings and dividends from foreign companies, you must claim on the ‘Foreign’ pages (SA106) the amount of savings income you want to relieve, and separately, the amount of dividend income you want to relieve. Amounts must be based on the tax year, and amounts identified per source should be calculated in accordance with the tax calculation rules applicable to that source. Similarly, for foreign gain claims, relief is given for each qualifying foreign gain that you identify in the claim. Relief is given by deducting the identified amount claimed from your total chargeable gains.

If in reporting your foreign income or gains and claiming relief under the FIG regime on any of the supplementary pages, you find you have reported an incorrect amount, this will not invalidate your claim. You may be in time to amend your claim (see time limits below), but otherwise, the amount of income or gains you have declared and claimed relief on will still be relieved. See SACM3025 and SACM10010 in the Self Assessment Claims Manual for general information about claims.

Example 

Sergio moved to the UK in August 2025 after 17 years abroad.

In the 2025 to 2026 tax year he received £50,000 in foreign dividends and sold overseas shares for a £20,000 gain.

He decides to claim relief under the FIG regime on both the dividend and gain for the 2025 to 2026 tax year and so will need to complete: 

• SA106 ‘Foreign’ pages to report the £50,000 foreign dividends and claim £50,000 of relief

• SA108 ‘Capital Gain tax summary’ pages to report the £20,000 gain from the sale of his overseas shares and claim £20,000 of relief

• SA109 ‘Residence and foreign income and gains (FIG) regime etc’ pages to make a foreign income claim and a foreign gain claim

He won’t receive his personal allowance or CGT annual exempt amount this year (see below for the impact on allowances and reliefs etc of making a claim under the FIG regime). 

Time limits to make a claim

You have until the anniversary of 31 January following the end of the tax year to which the claim relates (so 12 months from the normal filing date) to make a claim.  

The normal filing date for the 2025 to 2026 tax return is 31 January 2027, so the time limit for making a claim for relief for the 2025 to 2026 tax year is 31 January 2028. The same time limit applies for both a foreign income claim and a foreign gain claim.  

You can amend your claim and the time limit for doing so is the same as making a claim, unless a notice to file was issued after 31 October 2026. 

See RFIG42300 in the Residence and FIG Regime Manual for further guidance on this.

Effects of making a claim  

If you make a foreign income claim, a foreign gain claim or an Overseas Workday Relief (OWR) election for the 2025 to 2026 tax year, this will impact the various allowances and reliefs that you may be entitled to. See EIM43550 in the Employment Income Manual for information about making an OWR election.

Personal allowances  

 If you claim relief under the FIG regime you’ll lose: 

• personal allowance

• CGT annual exempt amount

• blind person’s allowance

• tax reductions for married couples and civil partners

• transferable tax allowance for married couple and civil partners

• relief in relation to payments for life insurance etc (payments to trade unions and police organisations)

Losses 

You can’t claim foreign income or capital losses in the year you claim relief under the FIG regime. For example: 

• foreign qualifying losses on asset disposals that accrue to you, which cease to be allowable losses

• trading and property income losses for the tax year in relation to a trade, profession, vocation or property business carried on wholly outside the UK

• entitlement to relief for relevant interest and finance costs in relation to a dwelling related loan for which a deduction may be available in respect of an overseas property business

You also can’t carry any of these losses forwards or backwards – see HS227 for more information about losses.

All the allowances above will be lost regardless of whether you make a claim or election for only foreign income, only foreign gains, or only OWR. For example, if you only make a foreign income claim you will still lose your CGT annual exempt amount.  

Adjusted net income 

Any foreign income relief is disregarded for the purpose of determining your adjusted net income (ANI) for the tax year, which is used to calculate entitlements to reliefs including tax-free childcare and the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC).  

Pension contributions  

If you make a foreign income claim you may be limited in the amount of tax relief that you’re entitled to on contributions to a registered pension scheme (see PTM044100 in the Pensions Tax Manual). If the maximum amount of relief on contributions to which you’re entitled for the tax year is higher than the ‘basic amount’, currently £3,600, then the relief on contributions that you’re entitled to is reduced by the lower of:  

• the amount of relief claimed under the FIG regime in respect of ‘relevant UK earnings’ (see PTM044100)

• the amount that would reduce the maximum amount of relief to the basic amount

This means that relief on contributions is reduced by reference to the amount of ‘relevant UK earnings’ for which a foreign income claim has been made but it is not reduced below the basic amount.  

Foreign Tax Credit Relief (FTCR)  

If you’re claiming relief under the FIG regime then you can’t also claim FTCR on that income. You can only claim FTCR on the appropriate proportion of any foreign income not covered by a claim for relief under the FIG regime.   

For more information on the effects of making a claim see RFIG43000. 

Check which income you can claim for

You can only claim relief under the FIG regime for qualifying foreign income. The types of income that are qualifying foreign income are set out in RFIG45100 and include:

• profits of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK

• a UK resident partner’s share of the profits of a trade carried on by the firm 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

• foreign pension income (except for the types of pension income that are disqualified income)

Further information on income arising under the transfer of assets abroad provisions, settlements legislation and income from trusts is included below.

Your income will only be qualifying foreign income for the purposes of the FIG regime if it arises on or after 6 April 2025. This is because if you make a foreign income claim for a tax year, you’re only entitled to relief in respect of income for that tax year, and a foreign income claim can’t be made for a tax year before 6 April 2025.  

This means that if you’re a former remittance basis user and have returned to the UK after 10 consecutive tax years of non-UK residence, you can’t claim relief for any foreign income and gains that arose prior to 6 April 2025 when you were UK resident and using the remittance basis, regardless of whether or not you remit the income and gains within your first 4 years of returning. You may, however, want to use the temporary repatriation facility (TRF) to take advantage of a lower tax rate by designating your pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains and paying the TRF charge (see helpsheet HS264). 

Relevant foreign earnings and foreign specific employment income are not qualifying foreign income for the purposes of the foreign income claim. However, you may be able to claim relief for these sources of foreign employment income under an Overseas Workday Relief (OWR) election – see EIM43550. 

Disqualified income 

You can’t claim relief under the FIG regime for any amount of disqualified income, and those amounts are taxed when they arise. 

Disqualified income is: 

• certain income arising under the settlements legislation

• income from a security treated as situated in the UK where there has been a share exchange involving a non-UK incorporated close company

• transferred income streams treated as income

• performance income

• certain types of pension income

For further information on disqualified income, see RFIG45200. 

Income from trusts 

Whether any trust income you have qualifies for relief depends on the type of trust, the residence of the trust and the source of the income – see RFIG45250 onwards for further guidance on this. 

Income arising under the settlements legislation 

Certain foreign income that is treated as arising to an individual under the settlements legislation is eligible for relief under the FIG regime – see RFIG45300 onwards for further guidance on this.  

Income arising under the transfer of assets abroad (ToAA) provisions 

Foreign income assessable under the ToAA provisions is eligible for relief under the FIG regime – see RFIG454000 onwards for further guidance on this. 

Check which gains you can claim for

You can make a claim for relief for the following types of gains:

• qualifying foreign asset gains

• certain gains treated as accruing under section 3 TCGA 1992 (gains of non-UK resident close companies attributed to UK residents)

• qualifying QAHC (qualifying asset holding company) gains

• certain gains treated as accruing under section 86 TCGA 1992 (gains attributed to settlors of non-resident settlements)

• gains treated as accruing under section 87, 89(2) and Schedule 4C TCGA 1992 (gains attributed to beneficiaries of non-resident settlements)

See RFIG45550 for further guidance on these types of gains and how the relief is given in each case.