Q&A: UK residence and ‘exceptional circumstances’

The recent Court of Appeal (CoA) decision in A Taxpayer v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 106 is the first case to consider the statutory residence test (SRT) contained in FA 2013 Sch 45.

The case does not consider the general application of the prescriptive rules which have proven more straightforward to apply since their introduction in 2013. The case specifically considers Sch 45 para 22(4) which allows taxpayers to disregard days of presence in the UK where: ‘P would not be present in the UK at the end of that day but for exceptional circumstances beyond P’s control that prevent P from leaving the UK and… P intends to leave the UK as soon as those circumstances permit.’

What are the facts of the case?

The dispute concerned whether a taxpayer was non-UK resident under the SRT in the 2015-16 tax year during which she...