Traps within the Covid-19 modifications to the SRT

After a series of high-profile cases Parliament decided in 2013 to enact a set of statutory rules that would be used to determine whether an individual was resident in the UK for the main direct taxes. All references to a numbered paragraph relate to the provisions found in FA 2013 Sch 45 (as amended).

The stated purpose of the statutory residence test (SRT) was to inject some certainty into an issue that had become markedly uncertain. However it was always recognised that a price of certainty would be the lack of flexibility in deserving cases.

For example in the absence of any statutory intervention an unexpected extended stay in the UK (say because of serious illness) ought not of its own make an individual UK-resident if one were to consider only the ordinary meaning of the word particularly if the individual...