Leaving the UK as an Employee: The Checklist

Leaving UK employment for a UAE job means telling HMRC you have gone, claiming split-year treatment on a Self Assessment return, and sorting the accounts and obligations that do not follow you automatically: ISAs, pensions, National Insurance, a home you let out, a student loan, Child Benefit and your UK bank. This checklist puts them in order, with the tax detail in the UK Tax guide and the pension detail in the Pensions guide.

Last reviewed 22 October 2026. UK rules for the 2026/27 tax year. Sources are listed at the end; several were read from search results and are marked.

It is planning information, not tax advice. If you let property, have income other than salary, or have a complicated departure year, a one-off session with a UK tax adviser is worth booking before you set your leaving date.

The headline picture

Eight to twelve weeks before you go

Agree your last UK working day and UAE start date. The dates decide your split-year case. For most people moving for a UAE job it is Case 1 (starting full-time work overseas); the UK Tax guide explains the cases and the conditions.

Check your ISA and bank accounts. You can keep an ISA after you move, and it keeps its UK tax relief, but you cannot pay in once you are not UK resident, and GOV.UK says you must tell the provider as soon as you stop being resident. Ask your ISA provider and your bank whether they keep accounts open for customers living abroad, before you change your address. A UK current account is useful for anything still paid in pounds: a tax refund, rent from a let home, a pension.

Decide what happens to your home. If you plan to let it:

• If you have a mortgage or a home purchase plan on it, ask the provider for consent to let before you sign a tenancy. Residential finance usually assumes you live in the home.
• Register for the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme. A letting agent (or, where there is no agent, a tenant paying more than £100 a week) deducts basic rate tax from the rent and pays it to HMRC, unless HMRC approves you to receive rent in full. You apply for approval with form NRL1. Approval does not make the rent tax-free; you still declare it on a Self Assessment return.

Letting your home also affects the residence test: a home you can still stay in can count as a UK tie. The UK Tax guide covers this.

Look at your pensions. Workplace contributions stop with the job. The Pensions guide covers what happens to a workplace pension and a SIPP, and what to check before you go.

In your last weeks

Get your P45. Your employer issues it when you leave. Keep it: it shows your pay and tax for the year so far, which you need for the refund below.

National Insurance. From 6 April 2026, voluntary Class 2 contributions are closed for time abroad. You can pay voluntary Class 3 (£18.40 a week in 2026/27) for years in the UAE only if you lived in the UK for 10 years in a row or have 10 qualifying years of contributions. The Pensions guide shows what an extra qualifying year adds to your State Pension.

Student loan. GOV.UK says you must tell the Student Loans Company if you are leaving the UK for more than three months. It sends an overseas income assessment, and repayments are then worked out against a threshold for the country you live in, not the UK threshold.

Child Benefit. If you are moving abroad for more than a year, Child Benefit stops from the date you leave. Tell the Child Benefit Office before you go.

Voting. Since 16 January 2024, British citizens living abroad can register as overseas voters for UK Parliamentary elections, with no 15-year limit. A registration lasts until 1 November in the third year, then needs renewing.

After you arrive

Tell HMRC you have left. If you will file a Self Assessment return for the year you leave (you will, to claim split-year treatment), report your departure on that return. If you do not need to file a return, use form P85 instead. The P85 tells HMRC you have left and lets it repay any tax overpaid on your UK salary.

Count your UK days. Every day you spend in the UK in later years counts toward the Statutory Residence Test. The UK day counter keeps a log and shows the limits.

Your first tax return

The Self Assessment return for 2026/27 is due online by 31 January 2028. With it you file the SA109 residence pages, which carry your split-year claim. Without the claim you are treated as UK resident for the whole year.

Worked example: leaving on 31 August 2026

Your UK salary is £85,000 a year, paid evenly each month, and your last UK working day is 31 August 2026. You start a full-time UAE job in September and qualify for split-year treatment under Case 1.

The tax refund. From April to August you earn £35,417 in the UK. PAYE deducts tax as if you will earn £85,000 for the whole year, so by August about £8,930 of income tax has been taken. With split-year treatment only your UK earnings are taxed, and HMRC staff say the personal allowance is given in full rather than cut back for a part year. Tax on £35,417 at 2026/27 rates is £4,569, so about £4,361 comes back once HMRC processes your return. National Insurance is worked out pay period by pay period, so none of that is repaid.

Visits home afterwards. From 2027/28, how many days you can spend in the UK and stay non-resident depends on your UK ties. Someone who was UK resident in at least one of the previous three tax years can spend up to:

| UK ties | Days in the UK | | --- | --- | | None | 182 | | 1 | 120 | | 2 | 90 | | 3 | 45 | | 4 or more | 15 |

These limits come from the sufficient ties test. The automatic tests run first: for example, working full time overseas, with fewer than 91 days in the UK and fewer than 31 days working in the UK, makes you non-resident whatever your ties. The UK day counter runs the tests in order.

What this guide does not cover

• How the residence test and split-year cases work in detail. The UK Tax guide covers them.
• Capital Gains Tax on selling a UK home, and inheritance tax after you leave. The UK Tax guide has the headlines.
• Self-employment, company directors and income other than salary.
• What changes when you come back. The Keeping Your Options Open guide covers the return.

Next steps

• Start a log in the UK day counter from the day you leave.
• Read the UK Tax guide before you fix your leaving date.
• Check your pensions and ISAs with the Pensions guide.
• Coming back later? The returning to the UK checklist covers the same accounts in reverse.

Sources

Checked 22 October 2026. GOV.UK cannot be opened from the session that wrote this guide, so where a rule was read from search results quoting a page, it says so.

• Individual Savings Accounts: if you move abroad (GOV.UK): keep the ISA, no new payments once non-resident, tell the provider. Read from search results.
• Voluntary National Insurance: if you live or work abroad and rates (GOV.UK): Class 2 closed for time abroad from 6 April 2026; Class 3 £18.40 a week, with the 10-year conditions. Checked 20 October 2026 for the UK Tax guide.
• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances and National Insurance rates (GOV.UK, 2026/27), as used in Landed's salary maths (checked 20 October 2026).
• Non-Resident Landlord Scheme (agent or tenant deducts basic rate tax; £100 a week tenant threshold; NRL1 approval): Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. Read from search results.
• P85 or Self Assessment on leaving: Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, P85. Read from search results.
• Personal allowance in a split year given in full: replies from HMRC staff on the HMRC Community Forums. Read from search results.
• Student loans abroad: Repaying your student loan (GOV.UK) and nidirect. Read from search results.
• Child Benefit abroad: Citizens Advice. Read from search results.
• Overseas voters from 16 January 2024: Lambeth Council and North Northamptonshire Council. Read from search results.
• Consent to let: Principality Building Society, a lender's own page. Read from search results.
• Residence test day limits: maxNonResidentDays in Landed's code (src/lib/srt.ts), which cites Finance Act 2013 Schedule 45 and HMRC's RDR3.
• Worked example: calculateUKTax and maxNonResidentDays in Landed's code, run on 22 October 2026.