Tax residence if you work abroad and spend holidays in UK

If you leave the UK under a full time contract of employment to work overseas you can establish non UK residence status. In order to do this you would need to ensure that your visits to the UK were less than 90 days in a tax year. If you spend less than 90 days in a tax year in the UK does this mean that the Revenue can't argue you are UK resident? Unfortunately not. One of the cases when they can do so is on the basis that your absence from the UK is not under a full time contract of employment. If you for example had a substantial break in an overseas employment to visit UK relatives they could argue that you are no longer overseas under a full time employment and that you have restablished UK residence. There have for example been cases where overseas employees have took three months leave to care after a bereaved family member and they have been classed as UK resident on their return.