SA109 Explained Box by Box: The Residence Pages (2025-26)

The SA109 - "Residence and foreign income and gains (FIG) regime etc" - is where everything the Statutory Residence Test decided about you gets reported to HMRC. Non-residence, split year treatment, your day counts, your tie count, FIG regime claims: it all lands on these four pages, filed as part of your Self Assessment return.

Two things surprise people. First, you cannot file it through HMRC's own online service - the SA109 goes on paper or online through commercial software (or an agent) - HMRC's SA109 notes say so directly. Second, the form doesn't ask whether you are non-resident in any explanatory way - it asks for the raw SRT facts: days, ties, work days, dates. The form is easy; knowing your numbers is the work.

Filing for 2025-26 (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026): HMRC must receive a paper return by 31 October 2026. An online return - through commercial software or an agent - is due by 31 January 2027. If you have never sent a return before, or didn't need to for 2024-25, GOV.UK sets 5 October 2026 to register for Self Assessment; if you register after that, HMRC gives you a filing deadline 3 months from the date of its letter or email, and the tax is still due by 31 January 2027. (Source: GOV.UK, Self Assessment deadlines.)

(Filing a P85 instead? Then you shouldn't be here - check which form you need.)

Key points

• SA109 is a supplement to the SA100 return, not a standalone form
• Boxes 1-14 are pure SRT output: residence status, split year, day counts, ties, work days
• Box 3 + box 6 carry a split year claim; the case goes in box 54
• Day counting follows the midnight rule (RFIG20710) with exceptional-circumstances days (max 60) split out into box 11
• From 2025-26 the form reflects the FIG regime that replaced the remittance basis

Boxes 1-14: residence status

This is the section that matters for most leavers and arrivers, and every entry is an SRT fact.

Box 1 - not resident. An X here claims non-residence for 2025-26. It has to be true under the SRT - the automatic overseas tests or the sufficient ties test - not just true in spirit. If you tick box 1, boxes 3 and 3.1 do not apply; HMRC's notes send you on to box 4 and ask for boxes 7-13 where applicable. (Box 2 is not in use.)

Box 3 and box 3.1 - split year treatment. Box 3 claims that your circumstances meet one of the split-year cases; box 3.1 flags that more than one case applies. There is no standalone split-year form - this is where the claim lives. State which case in box 54; if more than one applies, the SRT's priority ordering decides which governs your split date. Split year treatment is only for someone who is UK resident for the year, so box 3 and box 1 are never both ticked - with box 3 you fill in box 6, and box 10 becomes the UK days in the overseas part of the year only.

Box 4 - resident in 2024-25. An X if you were UK resident for 2024-25 and you are either non-resident for 2025-26 or claiming split year treatment for it. Prior-year residence also feeds several split-year cases and decides whether you are a "leaver" or "arriver" for the ties table.

Box 6 - the split date. The date the UK part of the year begins or ends. This single date decides which side of the line every pound of income falls on, and it comes out of the specific split-year case - it is not simply your travel date.

Box 7 - third automatic overseas test. An X if you work full-time overseas within the third automatic overseas test's limits.

Box 8 - gap between employments. Only if you ticked box 7 and had a gap between employments during 2025-26 (RFIG20160). The start and end dates of each gap go in box 54.

Box 9 - overseas home. An X if you had a home overseas and spent at least 30 days in it during 2025-26. With more than one overseas home, each is considered separately - it is 30 days in any one of them, not added together.

Box 10 - days in the UK. The headline number: days you were present in the UK at midnight during 2025-26 (RFIG20710). The day you leave is normally not a UK day; the day you arrive back is. Four details from HMRC's notes: only fill it in if you ticked box 1 or box 3; if the deeming rule (RFIG20720) applies, add the deemed days over 30 and note in box 54 how many are included; exceptional-circumstances days stay in this count; and with a split year claim it is the overseas part of the year only. If you spent no days in the UK, enter zero.

Box 11 - exceptional circumstances. Of the box 10 days, how many are attributed to exceptional circumstances (serious illness, national emergencies) - capped at 60 days per tax year, and narrower in practice than people hope.

Box 11.1 - transit days. Midnights in the UK while in transit between two other countries, provided you did nothing unrelated to travel - excluded from box 10, reported here instead.

Box 12 - your ties. The count from the UK ties test: family, accommodation, work, 90-day and (for leavers) country tie. If you ticked box 3 under split year case 4 or 8, it is the ties you had in the overseas part of the year; if you ticked neither box 1 nor box 3, HMRC's notes say you do not need to fill it in.

Boxes 13 and 14 - work days. Days you worked more than 3 hours in the UK (box 13) and overseas (box 14). Box 13 is asked for if you ticked box 7 (the full year's UK work days), or if you are claiming split year case 1 or 6 (UK work days in the overseas part only). These are the numbers least likely to survive being reconstructed from memory in an enquiry.

If you have been tracking the year as it happened, boxes 10-14 are a read-out, not a research project. That is, frankly, the argument for tracking: the day planner keeps the box 10 count honest through the year, and the split year dashboard works through which case applies and what date belongs in box 6.

Boxes 15-24: allowances, other residences, treaties

Boxes 15-17 claim personal allowances as a non-resident - box 15 where a double taxation agreement entitles you, box 16 on other grounds (nationality, EEA residence and similar; explain in box 54), box 17 the country codes.

Boxes 18-19 record the other countries where you were tax resident in 2025-26 (and 2024-25). Boxes 20-22 carry double-taxation relief claims - box 21 for treaty residence awarded to another country (Helpsheet 302), box 22 for other treaty provisions (Helpsheet 304); both need the helpsheet claim form attached.

Boxes 23-24 are for arrivers: date of arrival and the last prior year of UK residence. (Boxes 25-27 are not in use.)

Boxes 28-53: FIG regime, OWR, and the old remittance basis

From 6 April 2025 the foreign income and gains (FIG) regime replaced the remittance basis: qualifying new arrivals can claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first 4 years of UK residence. Boxes 28-30 carry that claim (box 30 for the qualifying-asset-holding-company edge case).

Boxes 37-39 are legacy remittance-basis boxes - nominated income remitted this year, business investment relief - relevant only if you have pre-April-2025 amounts still in the system. Boxes 40-49 handle Overseas Workday Relief elections, claims and the financial limit; boxes 50-53 the temporary repatriation facility for bringing previously-sheltered amounts to the UK at the reduced rate.

Most leavers never touch this section. If you genuinely do, this is also where "read a blog post" stops being an adequate preparation - these regimes reward professional advice.

Box 54: the box the form keeps pointing at

"Any other information" sounds optional. It isn't: the form itself says boxes 3, 3.1, 8, 11.1, 16, 37, 38, 39, 51, 52 and 53 may require more information here. The most common miss is a split-year claim with no statement of which case is relied on - say the case, the key facts, and the date logic.

The mistakes that generate HMRC letters

• Filing through HMRC's online service and only then discovering it cannot include the SA109 - now it is late October and the paper deadline has passed; commercial software is the escape hatch
• Box 10 guesswork. Reconstructing a year of midnights from a calendar in January rarely matches border data
• Counting transit days twice - box 11.1 days do not also belong in box 10
• A bare X in box 3 with no case stated in box 54
• A box 6 date that is just the flight date rather than the date the applicable case actually produces

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This article describes what the 2025-26 SA109 boxes ask, based on the published form and notes - it is not advice on what you should claim. Dual residence, treaty positions, FIG/OWR claims and anything contentious belong with a professional adviser.