Visiting family and non UK residence

You would find it difficult to establish non UK residence status if your family lived in the UK and you made frequent visits to them. Although the Revenue guidance on this simply refers to you spending less than 90 days in the UK to remain non UK resident, they and the Special Commissioners have challenged some individuals who have spent less than 90 days in the UK but have strong UK ties. In a couple of recent cases the return visits to the UK ensured that a husband was UK resident even though the visits were less than 90 days per tax year. In these cases they stated the importance of 'ongoing connections' with the UK in establishing UK residence. As such if your close family(eg spouse and children) lived in the UK and they had a property here to live in, regular visits by you (eg every week or two) would result in you also being classed as UK resident. As such if you were UK resident (and domiciled) you would be subject to UK income and capital gains tax on your worldwide income and gains. The main exception to this would be if you and your spouse had separated. In this case it may be possible to argue that the fact your spouse lived in the UK was not a close tie with the UK for tax purposes.