Moving between the two, in the right order.
The year you relocate carries the most planning opportunity and the most that can go wrong. Almost all of it is easier to handle before the move than after.
Before you go is when it is cheap
Timing a share sale, a pension withdrawal or a property disposal relative to your move date can change the outcome substantially. Once the move has happened, those options mostly close.
The same is true of accounts and investments. Restructuring holdings that will become problematic under the other country's rules is straightforward beforehand and painful once the reporting has started.
- Model any large gain or withdrawal against both possible dates
- Review investments that become PFICs or lose their shelter
- Check the residence tests you will land on either side
- Note your exact arrival and departure dates
During the move, record everything
Both residence tests turn on facts you will struggle to reconstruct later: precise travel dates, days present, when a home was available to you, when work actually started and stopped.
Keep a simple contemporaneous record from day one. It costs nothing at the time and is the difference between claiming split-year treatment cleanly and arguing for it from memory.
The first return is the hard one
Your first year is typically part-year residence in two countries, with income sourced either side of the move and one-time elections that set the pattern for everything after.
Neither split-year treatment nor US dual-status applies automatically. Both have to be claimed, and both depend on the facts you recorded while moving.
Related pages
- Guide
Your first year abroad
First-year expat tax guide: residence tests, split-year treatment, first filings in both countries and the elections to get right.
- Who we help
Planning a move
Moving between the US and UK: pre-move planning, split-year treatment, and the decisions that are far cheaper made before departure than unwound afterwards.
- Service
Property & capital gains
Cross-border property and capital gains: selling a home, rental income, currency gains and the 60-day UK reporting deadline, handled on both returns.
- Who we help
Investors & fund holders
Investing across the US and UK: PFICs, reporting funds, withholding recovery and building a portfolio both systems tolerate.
- Pillar guide
Tax specialists for US and UK
What US and UK tax specialists handle that a general accountant does not: residence tests, treaty relief, FBAR, PFICs, pensions, property and catch-up filings.
- Service
Double tax treaty relief
US-UK treaty analysis: residence tie-breakers, the pension articles and the saving clause, so each relief is claimed in the right country in the right order.
Further reading
- Your first UK tax year: what the year of arrival actually taxes
Move to Britain in October and the UK tax year still began in April. Split year treatment can fix that, but only through one of the statutory cases, and only if the facts fit.
- The repatriation year has more filings than the year you emigrated
Emigrating is one country's paperwork. Returning is two countries' paperwork plus a state you have not filed with for years, in a year when the reliefs you relied on stop working.
- The UK tax year: why 6 April runs your British filings
Britain counts its tax year from 6 April, America from 1 January. That single mismatch touches every figure a cross-border family reports.
Last reviewed . Thresholds and rates change annually — check figures against the current tax year before relying on them.
Move coming up?
The earlier we look at it the more options remain. Tell us the dates and what you are holding.