Circumstances for overstaying in the UK

On 4 April 2015 the taxpayer moved from the UK to Ireland. During the following tax year 2015-16 her husband transferred shares to her on which she received dividends of about £8m. The taxpayer completed her 2015-16 self-assessment tax return on the basis that she was not UK resident.

After an enquiry HMRC decided the taxpayer had exceeded the permissible number of days in the UK so was resident in the UK for tax purposes and assessed her to additional tax of about £3.1m. The taxpayer appealed.

It was common ground that the taxpayer had been in the UK for 50 nights in 2015-16 which was five days more than the 45 days allowed by the statutory residence test (SRT) (FA 2013 Sch 45). It was also common ground that she would be UK resident for the year unless the extra five days...