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End of remittance basis
From April 2025, the remittance basis closes for long-term residents. A new four-year Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime replaces it for newcomers.
The April 2025 UK reforms change the remittance-basis framework and introduce the Foreign Income and Gains regime for qualifying newcomers. Indian-origin families should review income-tax residence and inheritance-tax exposure separately. A return to India needs a coordinated review of UK assets, trusts, departure timing and Indian residence, rather than reliance on the old non-dom label.
Last reviewed: · Reviewed by Regi Tom Antony, FCA
From April 2025, the remittance basis closes for long-term residents. A new four-year Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime replaces it for newcomers.
After 10 years of UK residence, worldwide assets fall inside UK IHT. Indian-origin families with overseas trusts and Indian property need a fresh structuring review.
Coordinate return-to-India, long-term UK residence and potential Indian RNOR together. Transitional UK inheritance-tax rules and each income stream need a separate review.
From 6 April 2025, people who become UK resident after at least ten consecutive tax years of non-residence can claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first four years of UK residence. Claimed income is not taxed in the UK even if brought in, but the personal allowance and the capital gains annual exempt amount are lost for that year. After four years, worldwide income and gains are taxed as they arise, like any other UK resident.
Former remittance-basis users can bring foreign income and gains from before April 2025 into the UK at a reduced rate under the Temporary Repatriation Facility — 12% for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 tax years and 15% for 2027-28. For Indian-origin families with savings in India or the Gulf built up while non-dom, this can cost less than normal rates, but the amount must be designated in the UK return for the year.
UK inheritance tax now turns on residence, not domicile. You are a long-term UK resident if you have been UK resident in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years, and your worldwide estate is then within UK IHT. After you leave, exposure continues for a tail of between three and ten years depending on how long you were resident. India has no estate or inheritance tax, so Indian property, deposits and shares held by a long-term UK resident are exposed to UK IHT at 40% above the available nil-rate bands, with no Indian tax to offset.
If you plan to move back, the IHT tail means leaving the UK does not end exposure straight away. Timing of the move, gifts made before departure and any trusts need to be considered alongside the Indian RNOR window. A UK adviser should confirm the UK position; the Indian side — residency, treaty credit and foreign-asset disclosure — follows the steps in our UK return checklist.
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This guide is general information published by RTA & Associates. It is not tax, legal, financial or investment advice, and it does not create a client relationship. It does not take account of your personal circumstances, and you should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of anything here.
Cross-border outcomes turn on the specific facts — your day-counts, the timing of your move, the wrappers you hold and the treaty position between the two countries. A small change in any of those can change the answer completely.
References to the law, rules or practice of countries other than India are included for general orientation only. They are not advice on the law of that country, and they should be confirmed with a qualified adviser in that jurisdiction before you act.
Tax law, exchange-control rules and treaty positions change, and they change often. This page reflects our understanding as at the date shown above. We do not undertake to update it.
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