Telling HMRC you're leaving the UK: the tax admin most movers forget

Leaving the UK for the UAE comes with a piece of admin that has nothing to do with Dubai at all: telling HM Revenue and Customs that you've gone. It is easy to miss because nobody asks you for it at the airport, no UAE process depends on it, and the consequences — overpaid tax, or a letter you never receive — arrive quietly and late. This guide covers what HMRC expects, which form applies to you, and what stays taxable in the UK after you leave. It is practical research, not tax advice; the gov.uk pages linked throughout are the authority.

Who has to tell HMRC

HMRC's guidance is explicit. You must tell them if you are leaving the UK to live abroad permanently, or going to work abroad full-time — including for a UK-based employer — for at least one full tax year. Most UK→UAE employment moves fall into the second category even when the move doesn't feel permanent. Confirm on gov.uk — tax if you retire abroad or return to the UK.

Which route: P85 or Self Assessment

There are two routes, and you use one, not both.

If you do not normally send a Self Assessment tax return, you tell HMRC using form P85 ("Get your Income Tax right if you're leaving the UK"). HMRC asks you to have your P45 to hand — specifically Parts 2 and 3, the "details of employee leaving work" — if your employer gave you one. If you are already abroad you can claim online and track the claim with a reference number; if you are still in the UK, HMRC's guidance says to print and post the form instead. Detail: gov.uk — P85 if you're leaving the UK.

If you do send a Self Assessment return, you do not fill in a P85. Instead you complete the residence section — form SA109 — for the tax year you leave, and send it by post. HMRC states plainly that you cannot use its online services to tell them you're leaving the UK: non-resident returns with an SA109 go by post (with the earlier 31 October paper deadline), through commercial software that supports SA109, or through an adviser. See gov.uk — tax on UK income if you live abroad.

After either route, HMRC works out whether you are owed a refund for the tax year in which you left. Refund cheques are handled in ways that assume a UK bank account still exists, which is one practical reason not to close your UK account the week you fly.

The year you leave is usually split

UK tax residence is decided per tax year under the Statutory Residence Test. The headline tests: spending 183 or more days in the UK in a tax year makes you resident; working abroad full-time (averaging at least 35 hours a week) while spending fewer than 91 days in the UK, no more than 30 of them working, generally makes you non-resident. For the year you actually move, HMRC's guidance says the tax year is usually split into two — a resident part and a non-resident part — so you are not treated as UK-resident for the whole year just because you left partway through. Split-year treatment does not apply if you live abroad for less than a full tax year before returning. Confirm the tests on gov.uk — tax on foreign income: residence.

What stays taxable in the UK

Becoming non-resident does not switch off UK tax on UK income. HMRC lists pensions, rental income, savings interest and wages as UK income that can remain taxable for non-residents, though you may still be eligible for a Personal Allowance. If you keep a UK property and rent it out, that rental income is reported through Self Assessment, and the UK and UAE have a double taxation convention in force — signed 12 April 2016, in force from 25 December 2016 — which governs relief where the same income is taxed twice. Treaty text: gov.uk — United Arab Emirates tax treaties.

National Insurance

You cannot claim back National Insurance you have already paid if you leave permanently. You may, however, be able to keep paying it voluntarily from abroad — something people do to protect their State Pension record. Whether that makes sense for you is a personal decision worth researching on gov.uk before you go.

Where this fits in your sequence

Nothing in your UAE arrival chain — entry, medical, Emirates ID, tenancy — waits for HMRC. That is exactly why this step slips. Treat it as a departure-side task: P45 in hand, route chosen, form submitted around the time you leave, and one UK bank account left open until any refund lands. The wider UK-side list (student loans, Child Benefit, voting) is in the UK leaving-admin checklist.

Sources

• https://www.gov.uk/tax-right-retire-abroad-return-to-uk
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-your-income-tax-right-if-youre-leaving-the-uk-p85
• https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad
• https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-arab-emirates-tax-treaties

Sources linked; human verification in progress.