Is the UK Non-Dom Regime Really Gone? FIG Explained
If you've read that the UK non-dom regime has been abolished and you're not sure what that leaves you with, take a breath. The headlines were loud and short on detail, and the change is real, but it's also more workable than the coverage suggested.
Here is the plain version. On 6 April 2025 the old non-dom rules ended, and a new four-year regime based on where you live, not where you're domiciled, took their place.
Below we walk through what actually changed, what the new Foreign Income and Gains regime does, and whether any of this affects you. We do this work for internationally mobile clients every day, so we've kept it to what matters and skipped the policy-paper fog.
The short answer: yes, the non-dom regime is gone
The non-dom regime, more precisely the remittance basis of taxation, was abolished from 6 April 2025. That is not a proposal or a consultation. It happened.
Domicile no longer decides how your foreign income and gains are taxed. Your UK tax residence does.
In its place sits the Foreign Income and Gains regime, usually shortened to FIG. It gives eligible new arrivals four years of relief on money earned abroad, and then everyone is taxed the same way: on worldwide income and gains as they arise.
So the concept survives in spirit, as a temporary shelter for newcomers, but the version built around domicile is finished.
What the non-dom regime was, and what actually changed
For decades, "non-dom" described someone who lived in the UK but kept their permanent home, their domicile, somewhere else. Domicile is a common-law idea about where you truly belong, and it's stickier and more personal than residence.
Non-Domiciled Individual
/nɒn ˈdɒm.ɪ.saɪld/
A person who is UK tax resident but whose permanent home (domicile) is legally considered to be another country. Until April 2025, this status unlocked the remittance basis of taxation.
A non-dom could claim the remittance basis. Under it, foreign income and gains were only taxed in the UK if you brought, or "remitted", them here. Money left offshore stayed outside UK tax.
That was the whole appeal. You could live in London, earn dividends in Singapore, and pay no UK tax on those dividends as long as they never touched a UK account.
The trade-offs were real, though. After seven years of UK residence you paid an annual charge of £30,000 to keep using the basis, rising to £60,000 after twelve years, and you gave up your personal allowance and capital gains exemption. After fifteen years you became deemed domiciled and the shelter closed anyway.
What changed in April 2025 is that this entire structure was scrapped. Domicile stopped being the pivot for income tax and capital gains tax, and the government moved to a system based on how long you've been resident. If you want the mechanics of the old status, our guide to proving your non-UK domicile status explains how domicile used to be established.
What is the FIG regime?
The Foreign Income and Gains regime is the replacement. It rewards genuine newcomers rather than long-standing residents who happen to hold a foreign domicile.
Foreign Income and Gains regime
/fɪɡ/
A four-year UK tax relief for new residents who were non-UK resident for the previous ten tax years. Qualifying foreign income and gains are fully exempt from UK tax and can be brought into the UK freely.
Here's how it works in practice.
If you become UK tax resident after at least ten consecutive tax years of non-residence, you can claim FIG relief for your first four tax years of residence. During those years, your qualifying foreign income and gains are not taxed in the UK at all.
The four-year clock starts from the year you become resident, and it runs whether or not you claim in every year. It is not paused if you have a quiet year abroad.
There are two features that make FIG cleaner than the old remittance basis.
What FIG changes for the better
- No remittance trap. You can bring your foreign income and gains into the UK during the four years and spend them here, tax-free. The old basis taxed money the moment it landed.
- No annual charge. There's no £30,000 or £60,000 fee to pay for the privilege.
- Open to returning Britons. Eligibility turns on residence history, not domicile, so a UK national coming home after a decade abroad can qualify.
The catch is the same one that applied before. In any year you claim FIG relief, you lose your income tax personal allowance and your capital gains annual exempt amount. For most people with meaningful foreign income, that's a price worth paying, but it should be modelled rather than assumed.
Not every kind of foreign money is covered, either. FIG is aimed at things like overseas employment income, foreign dividends and interest, rental profits abroad and foreign capital gains. It has to be claimed year by year on your tax return, and you have to identify the specific income and gains you want relieved, so the bookkeeping matters.
Whether you qualify at all comes down to your residence record, and that is decided by the Statutory Residence Test. If you're unsure where you stand, our explainer on how UK tax residency is determined breaks the test down day by day.
Remittance basis vs the FIG regime, side by side
The two systems solve the same problem, sheltering foreign wealth, but they aim at different people and behave differently.
The old remittance basis vs the new FIG regime
| Feature | Remittance basis (pre-2025) | FIG regime (from 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Based on | Domicile status | UK tax residence |
| How long it lasts | Up to 15 years | First 4 years of residence |
| Annual charge | £30k then £60k | None |
| Bring money into the UK tax-free | ✕ | ✓ |
| Loses personal allowance when claimed | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open to returning UK nationals | ✕ | ✓ |
The headline difference is the fifteen-years-versus-four-years line. The old regime could shelter someone for a long time; FIG is deliberately short and front-loaded. It's designed to attract talent and capital for a few years, not to host permanent residents indefinitely.
Who does the non-dom abolition affect?
Three groups feel this change, in very different ways.
Long-standing non-doms
If you've lived in the UK for years and relied on the remittance basis, the shelter is gone. From 2025/26 your worldwide income and gains are taxable here as they arise, unless a transition rule applies to older money.
New arrivals to the UK
If you're moving to the UK and were non-resident for the prior ten years, the FIG regime is generally better news than the old rules. You get four years of clean relief with no charge and no remittance restriction.
Returning UK nationals
This is the genuinely new group. Because eligibility no longer depends on domicile, a British citizen returning after ten or more years abroad can now claim FIG relief, something the remittance basis never allowed.
There is a fourth angle worth flagging, which is inheritance tax. From April 2025 the UK also moved IHT onto a residence basis. In broad terms, once you've been UK resident for ten of the previous twenty tax years you become a long-term resident and fall within IHT on your worldwide estate, and that exposure can trail you for several years after you leave. That's a separate topic from FIG, but it often lands on the same person, so treat the two together.
A worked example: two people, two outcomes
Concrete cases make this clearer than any definition.
Take an engineer relocating to London from Dubai, where she has lived and worked for the past twelve years. Because she was non-resident for well over ten years, she qualifies for FIG. For her first four UK tax years she can draw on foreign investment income and gains, spend them in the UK, and pay no UK tax on them. She simply claims year by year and accepts the loss of her personal allowance in the years she does.
Now take a fund manager who has lived in the UK for eighteen years and claimed the remittance basis for most of them, with a large pool of untaxed offshore income. For him, nothing new shelters current earnings: from 2025/26 his worldwide income is taxed as it arises. His planning is about the old money, and that is where the transition rules come in.
Foreign income kept offshore was untaxed indefinitely while non-dom, but stuck outside the UK unless you paid full tax to remit it.
Qualifying foreign income and gains are tax-free for four years and can be brought into the UK and spent freely, with no annual charge.
Is the remittance basis still available?
No, not for new use. You cannot claim the remittance basis for foreign income and gains arising on or after 6 April 2025.
But the money you sheltered under it in earlier years doesn't vanish. Foreign income and gains that arose before that date, and that you kept offshore under the old basis, are still untaxed until you bring them to the UK. The old remittance charge on those pre-2025 funds still applies if you remit them normally.
That's precisely the problem the transition rules were built to address.
The transition rules that soften the blow
The government paired the abolition with three measures to help former non-doms adjust rather than face a cliff edge. These matter enormously if you have offshore funds built up under the old system.
The most useful is the Temporary Repatriation Facility, or TRF. It lets you bring pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains into the UK at a reduced flat rate, well below normal income tax rates, for a limited window.
The rate is 12% for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years, then 15% for 2027/28, after which the facility closes. If you have long-trapped offshore money, this is one of the cleanest chances you'll get to repatriate it cheaply.
The other two measures are quieter but valuable.
The rest of the transition package
- Capital gains rebasing. Former remittance-basis users can rebase personally held foreign assets to their 5 April 2017 value, so only the growth since then is taxed on a later disposal.
- An adjustment period for existing residents. The switch to arising-basis taxation applies going forward, so pre-2025 foreign income and gains are only caught if and when you remit them or use the TRF.
Model the TRF against your own remittance plans before the window closes. For someone sitting on years of untaxed offshore income, designating funds at 12% can be far cheaper than remitting them later at full income tax rates. The maths is personal, so run it on your actual balances.
None of these reliefs is automatic. They have to be claimed correctly and reported, and the rebasing and TRF rules interact in ways that reward planning done early rather than in the final week of the window. Getting the order right, which funds to designate, which assets to rebase, and in which tax year, is where most of the value is won or lost.
What to do now
Start with one question: are you a newcomer who might qualify for FIG, or a long-term resident whose shelter has closed?
If you're arriving, check your ten-year non-residence record and plan which years you'll claim the relief. The four years pass quickly, and the loss of your personal allowance in claim years means the timing is a real decision, not a formality. It's also worth deciding early which accounts your foreign income sits in, because clean records make the annual claim far simpler.
If you're an established resident, the priority is your pre-2025 offshore funds and whether the TRF makes sense before it expires. This is also the moment to revisit inheritance tax exposure under the new residence rules, especially if you're weighing up when, or whether, to leave the UK.
Either way, your reporting changes. Claiming FIG relief or using the TRF happens through self assessment, and if you've recently moved, our note on filing a UK tax return from abroad covers the mechanics. For a full strategy across income, gains and inheritance, this is exactly where specialist expat wealth planning earns its keep.
Common questions
What is the FIG regime?
The Foreign Income and Gains (FIG) regime is the UK relief that replaced the non-dom remittance basis in April 2025. If you become UK tax resident after at least ten consecutive years of non-residence, your qualifying foreign income and gains are exempt from UK tax for your first four tax years of residence, and you can bring that money into the UK freely.
Is the remittance basis still available?
No. You cannot claim the remittance basis for foreign income or gains arising on or after 6 April 2025. Funds you sheltered under the old basis in earlier years remain untaxed until you remit them, and the Temporary Repatriation Facility offers a reduced rate for bringing that older money into the UK.
Who does the non-dom abolition affect?
Three groups. Long-standing non-doms lose the remittance shelter and are now taxed on worldwide income as it arises. New arrivals gain the FIG regime's four years of relief. Returning UK nationals can now qualify too, because eligibility depends on residence history rather than domicile.
Does claiming FIG relief cost you anything?
There's no annual charge like the old £30,000 and £60,000 fees. But in any tax year you claim FIG relief you lose your income tax personal allowance and your capital gains annual exempt amount. For most people with substantial foreign income the relief still wins, but it should be modelled.
What is the Temporary Repatriation Facility?
The TRF is a transition measure letting former remittance-basis users bring pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains into the UK at a reduced flat rate: 12% in 2025/26 and 2026/27, then 15% in 2027/28. After that the facility closes and normal rates apply.
Further reading
