Returning to the UK from the UAE: The Checklist

Moving back to the UK from the UAE takes three decisions about timing (when your UAE job ends, when you become UK resident again, and when you sell anything you held before you left) and a set of admin steps on arrival: school places, your National Insurance record, a home, the NHS, and the accounts you paused when you left. This checklist puts them in order.

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

The UK tax rules on return (the residence test, split-year treatment on arrival and temporary non-residence) are explained in the Keeping Your Options Open guide. This guide links to that explanation and covers what else to do. It is planning information, not tax advice.

The headline picture

Before you resign

Choose the date your UAE job ends. Three things depend on it:

• Gratuity. You qualify after one full year, and it is worked out on your last basic salary. Part-years count once you pass the first year, so leaving a month after a work anniversary or a month before changes the amount only a little; leaving before your first anniversary loses it.
• The UK tax year you return in. Split-year treatment on arrival (Case 6, ceasing full-time work overseas, is the usual one) divides that year into an overseas part and a UK part. Each case has conditions about the year before and the year after. The Keeping Your Options Open guide sets them out.
• UK tax on your end-of-service payment. Since 6 April 2018, HMRC's relief for termination payments from foreign service is not available to anyone who is UK resident for the tax year their employment ends. If your gratuity is large, ask a UK tax adviser about the timing before you resign.

Check temporary non-residence. If you return within five years of leaving, and were UK resident in at least four of the seven tax years before you left, some income and gains from your time abroad are taxed in the year you come back. Your UAE salary is not caught; gains on assets you held before you left can be. If you plan to sell UK shares or property while abroad, check the rule before you fix your return date.

Three to six months before you move

Apply for school places. In England you apply through the council for the address you will live at. For a September start the deadlines are 31 October for secondary schools and 15 January for primary schools; after that, and during the school year, councils handle in-year applications. Most councils ask for proof of an English address, so a tenancy agreement or proof of purchase moves your application up. The Keeping Your Options Open guide covers in-year places.

Check your National Insurance record. Gaps in your record reduce your State Pension. Check your record and State Pension forecast on GOV.UK. You can usually pay voluntary contributions for the past six tax years; the deadline for each year is 5 April, six years on. The Pensions guide shows what one extra qualifying year adds.

Decide whether to rent or buy first. If you buy a home in England before you have spent 183 days in the UK in the previous 12 months, you pay a 2% Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge for non-residents on top of the usual rates. You can claim it back if you then spend 183 days in the UK within the 365 days after completion, by amending your return within two years. Renting first avoids the cash outlay. In England, a tenancy deposit is capped at five weeks' rent where the rent is under £50,000 a year.

In your first weeks back

Register with a GP. British citizens who return to live in the UK on a settled basis are normally treated as ordinarily resident from the day they arrive, so NHS hospital care is free from then. You may be asked for evidence that you live here (a tenancy agreement, a utility bill, a UK bank statement or a job offer). Prescriptions and dental care in England are charged as for any resident.

Restart the accounts you paused. You can pay into an ISA again once you are UK resident. If you have a student loan and were abroad for more than three months, update your employment details with the Student Loans Company so repayments move back to the UK threshold through your payroll. Claim Child Benefit again if you stopped it.

Tell HMRC and your new employer. Your first UK employer will ask for a P45; you will not have a UK one from the UAE job, so you fill in a starter checklist instead. Your tax code may not reflect a split year at first; any tax overpaid comes back when HMRC processes your return.

Your first tax return

You file a Self Assessment return for the tax year you return in, with the SA109 residence pages carrying your split-year claim. For a return in the 2026/27 tax year, the online deadline is 31 January 2028.

Worked example: back on 1 February 2027

Your UAE basic salary is AED 30,000 a month, and you leave after four years and six months. You start a UK job at £70,000 a year on 1 February 2027 and qualify for split-year treatment under Case 6.

Gratuity. At 21 days' basic for each year of service, four and a half years come to AED 93,205 on the Gratuity Calculator's method. Whether UK tax applies to it depends on the timing above.

UK income tax in the year you return. From 1 February to 5 April you earn about £11,667 in the UK (two months' pay). With split-year treatment only the UK part is taxed, and HMRC staff say the personal allowance is given in full in a split year. £11,667 is below the £12,570 personal allowance, so no income tax is due on it for 2026/27. If PAYE deducts tax in February and March because your tax code assumes a full year, it comes back through your return.

Buying a home. Buy a £450,000 home in March 2027 and you have spent far fewer than 183 days in the UK in the previous 12 months, so you pay the 2% surcharge: £9,000 on top of the usual Stamp Duty Land Tax. Stay in the UK for 183 days in the 365 days after completion and you can claim the £9,000 back.

What this guide does not cover

• How the residence test, split-year cases and temporary non-residence work in detail. The Keeping Your Options Open guide covers them, and the UK day counter runs the residence tests.
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own school admissions and property taxes.
• Selling UAE property, closing UAE accounts and cancelling a UAE visa.
• Advice on a specific termination payment. Ask a UK tax adviser.

Next steps

• Log your UK days in the UK day counter for the year you return.
• Read the UK return rules in the Keeping Your Options Open guide.
• Check what you left behind in the leaving the UK checklist: 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.

• Temporary non-residence (five years; four of the previous seven tax years) and split-year Cases 6 to 8: as sourced in the Keeping Your Options Open guide (Tax if you return to the UK, GOV.UK, and RFIG21250, HMRC). Search results.
• Foreign service relief on termination payments, not available to UK residents from 6 April 2018: EIM13500 (HMRC Employment Income Manual) and CMS, taxation of termination payments. Search results.
• Voluntary National Insurance for the past six tax years, 5 April deadlines: Voluntary National Insurance: deadlines (GOV.UK). Search results.
• Stamp Duty Land Tax non-resident surcharge (2%, 183 days, refund within two years): Penningtons Manches Cooper and Deloitte. Search results.
• School application deadlines in England: Department for Education Education Hub (15 January, primary) and North Northamptonshire Council (31 October, secondary). Search results.
• NHS on return (ordinarily resident from settling; evidence asked for): The Haemophilia Society, returning to the UK to settle and Your Overseas Home. Search results.
• ISAs on return: Individual Savings Accounts: if you move abroad (GOV.UK). Search results.
• Student loans on return: Repaying your student loan (GOV.UK). Search results.
• Tenancy deposit cap: Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1, as sourced in the Keeping Your Options Open guide. Search results.
• Gratuity rule (Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021, Art. 51): as sourced in the UAE job offer guide.
• Personal allowance in a split year: HMRC staff replies on the HMRC Community Forums. Search results.
• Worked example: statutoryGratuityAED and calculateUKTax in Landed's code, run on 22 October 2026.