Temporary easement of UK’s residency rules for skilled workers from overseas

The government has announced a temporary relaxation to the UK’s tax residency rules for ‘highly skilled’ individuals – ‘from anaesthetists through to engineers’ – coming to the UK from overseas to work against the coronavirus pandemic.

In an open letter to the House of Commons’ Treasury committee chancellor Rishi Sunak said: ‘We will amend the statutory residence test to ensure that any period(s) between 1 March and 1 June 2020 spent in the UK by individuals working on Covid-19 related activities will not count towards the residence tests. It is right that these changes are time limited and only support those people whose skillsets are currently required. The qualifying criteria will therefore be designed so that the relaxation of the rules is tightly targeted minimising the risk of abuse.’

Nimesh Shah a partner at Blick Rothenberg said: ‘The move signals the government’s desire to attract...