--- title: "The UK Self Assessment deadline when you live abroad" url: https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/uk-self-assessment-deadline-non-resident category: "Regulatory Intelligence" author: "Dan Mould" published: 2026-10-31 modified: 2026-10-31 --- # The UK Self Assessment deadline when you live abroad > For 2025/26 the online UK Self Assessment deadline is 31 January 2027, and leaving the UK does not switch the return off. The real trap for a non-resident is the filing, because HMRC's free online service does not accept the SA109 residence pages you have to file, so you need commercial software or an agent. ## Key Takeaways - The online Self Assessment deadline for the 2025/26 tax year is 31 January 2027, and that is also the date any tax owed, including the first payment on account, has to be paid. The paper deadline of 31 October 2026 has already passed. - Leaving the UK does not end the obligation to file. If you have UK income that is not fully taxed at source, UK rental income, or you need to report a residence change or claim split-year treatment, you are most likely still within Self Assessment for the year, wherever you now live. - The trap for a non-resident is the online service, not the deadline. HMRC's free online Self Assessment does not support the SA109 residence pages that a non-resident has to file, so you cannot use it. You either filed a paper return by 31 October, which has gone, or you use commercial software or an agent to file online by 31 January 2027. - Non-resident landlords are squarely in this. Rental income from UK property keeps you inside UK Self Assessment as a non-resident, and if your qualifying income is high enough you are also being brought into Making Tax Digital quarterly reporting. - The penalties are automatic and do not care where you live. A missed deadline is an immediate £100, then daily penalties as the delay grows, with interest on tax paid late, so the distance that made filing awkward is never a defence. ## The deadline is the same wherever you are If you have moved abroad and still have something to report to HMRC, the date to hold in your head is 31 January 2027. That is the online filing deadline for the 2025 to 2026 tax year, and it is also the day any tax you owe has to be paid. Living in Dubai, Dublin or anywhere else does not move it, and in my experience the people who are caught out by it are rarely the ones who owe the most. They are the ones who assumed that leaving the country quietly ended the paperwork, and discovered in February that it had not. This note is about that gap, for someone who is now non-resident or who left the UK part way through the year. It is not the general filing calendar a UK-resident company keeps, which is set out separately in the note on [what a UK company has to file every year](https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/uk-company-filing-requirements-non-resident). It is the narrower and more personal question of your own Self Assessment return once you no longer live in the UK, which has one genuine deadline problem that almost nobody is warned about, and I want to deal with that plainly before the January rush. ## The dates, including the one that has already gone A Self Assessment year has a short set of fixed dates, and for 2025/26 they fall like this. - **The online filing deadline is 31 January 2027.** For the 2025/26 tax year, a return filed online has to reach HMRC by that date, and 97% of returns are now filed online. - **The tax is due on the same day.** Any balancing payment for 2025/26, and your first payment on account for 2026/27 if you have to make one, are both due on 31 January 2027. Filing and paying fall together. - **The second payment on account is 31 July 2027.** Where payments on account apply, the second instalment follows in the summer. - **The paper deadline was 31 October 2026, and it has passed.** A paper return for 2025/26 had to reach HMRC by 31 October 2026. If you needed to file on paper, and the next section explains why some non-residents do, that door has already closed for this year. - **First-time filers had to register by 5 October 2026.** If 2025/26 was the first year you needed to file, the registration deadline has also gone, so register now and expect to deal with the lateness. Two of those dates are already behind us as this is written, which is exactly why a non-resident needs to think about the route to filing now rather than in January. ## Leaving the UK does not switch the return off The most common and most expensive assumption is that becoming non-resident ends the duty to file. It does not. You are generally still within Self Assessment for a year if any of the following is true, and most people who have recently left tick at least one box. **You have UK income that is not fully taxed at source.** UK rental income is the clearest case, and it is dealt with below. But UK self-employment, certain UK pensions, and other UK-source income that arrives without the right tax already taken off also keep you in the system. **You left the UK part way through the year.** The year of departure is usually a Self Assessment year in its own right, because you have to report the change of residence and, where it applies, claim split-year treatment so that only part of the year is taxed as resident. That claim is made on the residence pages of the return, not automatically. **You have a UK capital gain to report.** Some UK gains remain within the UK net for a non-resident, and the interaction with a later return to the UK is its own trap, set out in the note on [temporary non-residence and the capital gains clawback](https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/uk-temporary-non-residence-cgt-clawback). A disposal of UK residential property has its own separate 60-day reporting rule on top. **HMRC has sent you a notice to file.** If a return has been issued to you, the obligation stands until HMRC withdraws it, whether or not you think you owe anything, and the underlying duty to notify HMRC that you are chargeable sits in section 7 of the Taxes Management Act 1970. The wider question of what the UK still taxes once you live abroad is covered in the note on [UK tax when you live in Dubai](https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/uk-tax-living-in-dubai). The point here is simply that non-residence is a filing position to be handled, not an exemption from filing. ## The real trap is the online service, not the date Here is the part almost no one is told, and it is the reason a well-meaning non-resident misses the deadline despite trying to meet it. If you are non-resident, you have to complete the SA109 residence pages of the tax return, the pages that record your residence status and let a non-resident claim the right allowances. HMRC's own free online Self Assessment service does not support the SA109 pages. So the route that 97% of people use, logging into the government website and filling the return in, is simply not open to you. That leaves two routes, and one of them has already closed for 2025/26. You could file a paper return, but the paper deadline was 31 October 2026, so for this year that option has gone unless you are willing to file late and take the penalty. Or you file online using commercial software that supports the residence pages, which has to reach HMRC by 31 January 2027, and this is the route that is still open. For most non-residents the practical answer is to use an agent who files through that software, which is the kind of filing we handle through our [UK accounting service for non-residents](https://www.boruconsulting.com/uk-accounting-for-non-residents), precisely because the free government route they would otherwise reach for does not accept their return. I labour this because it is the single most avoidable way to miss the deadline. A non-resident sits down in good time in January, goes to the HMRC website as they always did when they lived in the UK, and finds they cannot file the residence pages there. By the time they work out that they need commercial software or an agent, the deadline is close or gone. Knowing now, in the autumn, that the free route is closed to you is what gives you the time to arrange the one that is not. ## If you are a non-resident landlord Letting a UK property is the reason a great many people stay in Self Assessment long after they leave, and it comes with its own machinery. As a non-resident landlord you remain within UK Self Assessment on the rental profit, and under the Non-resident Landlord Scheme, set up by the Taxation of Income from Land (Non-residents) Regulations 1995, your letting agent or tenant is required to withhold basic-rate tax of 20% from the rent and pay it to HMRC, unless you have been approved by HMRC to receive the rent gross and account for the tax yourself through your return. Either way the return still has to be filed, and the detail of how the scheme interacts with the associated-company rules is in the note on [the non-resident corporate landlord](https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/uk-non-resident-landlord-associated-companies). There is a second change bearing down on landlords that a non-resident should not ignore. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has begun, and landlords and sole traders with qualifying income above the threshold are being brought into quarterly digital reporting rather than a single annual return, a shift set out in the note on [Making Tax Digital for the non-resident landlord](https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/mtd-itsa-non-resident-landlord-2026). It does not change the 31 January 2027 deadline for the 2025/26 return, but it changes what filing looks like going forward, and it is another reason to have the right software or the right agent in place rather than relying on a free service that will not serve you. ## What the Budget changed, and what it did not The Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 did touch Self Assessment, but not in a way that moves this year's deadline. From April 2029, taxpayers who make payments on account are due to move to more regular in-year payments, with automated payment becoming the default, a change set out among the other measures in the note on [the Autumn Budget for owners and founders](https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/autumn-budget-2026-business-owners-founders). That is some years off and still being developed. For the 2025/26 return you are filing now, nothing has changed: the deadline is 31 January 2027, the payment is due the same day, and the routes to filing are exactly as described above. ## What to do now The work that keeps this simple is done in November, not in the last week of January, and for a non-resident it is mostly about the route rather than the numbers. - **Confirm whether you actually need to file.** If you have UK rental or other untaxed UK income, left part way through the year, or hold a notice to file, assume you do, and check rather than guess. - **Accept that the free HMRC route is closed to you.** If you are non-resident and need the SA109 pages, arrange commercial software or an agent now, because the paper alternative has already passed for this year. - **Gather the figures once.** UK rental accounts, any UK employment or pension income, UK gains, and the dates of your departure and residence position for the split-year claim. - **Diarise 31 January 2027 as both a filing and a payment date,** and work out any payment on account due so the cash is ready, because the two fall together. - **If you are a landlord, check whether Making Tax Digital now applies to you,** so that this is the last ordinary annual return rather than a surprise next year. None of this is difficult once you know the one thing the season does not tell non-residents, which is that the familiar free route is not available to them. Knowing that in the autumn is the whole difference between a calm filing and a late one. ## Frequently asked questions ### When is the UK Self Assessment deadline for the 2025/26 tax year? The online filing deadline for the 2025 to 2026 tax year is 31 January 2027, and any tax you owe for the year, together with a first payment on account for 2026/27 where one is due, has to be paid by the same date. The paper filing deadline was earlier, on 31 October 2026, and it has already passed. If you are filing late because a deadline has gone, file as soon as you can, because the penalties build with time. Living abroad does not change any of these dates. ### Do I still have to file a UK tax return after leaving the UK? Usually yes, if you have a continuing UK connection for the year. You remain within Self Assessment if you have UK income that is not fully taxed at source, such as rental income from a UK property, if you left part way through the year and need to report the residence change or claim split-year treatment, if you have a UK capital gain to report, or if HMRC has issued you a notice to file. Becoming non-resident is a position you report on the return, not an automatic exemption from filing, so the safe assumption is that you still file unless you have confirmed you do not. ### Why can't I file my non-resident tax return on the HMRC website? Because a non-resident has to complete the SA109 residence pages, and HMRC's free online Self Assessment service does not support them. That is the route most UK residents use, but it is simply not available for a return that includes the residence pages. You therefore have two options: file a paper return, which had to reach HMRC by 31 October 2026, or file online using commercial software that supports the SA109 pages, which has to reach HMRC by 31 January 2027. For most non-residents the practical route is an agent who files through that software. ### I am a non-resident landlord. Do I file Self Assessment? Yes. Rental income from UK property keeps you within UK Self Assessment even though you live abroad. Under the Non-resident Landlord Scheme your letting agent or tenant must deduct basic-rate tax from the rent and pay it to HMRC, unless HMRC has approved you to receive the rent gross and settle the tax through your own return, and in both cases you still file. If your qualifying income is high enough you are also being brought into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which replaces the single annual return with quarterly digital reporting, so it is worth checking whether that now applies to you. ### What is the SA109 and do I need it? The SA109 is the set of supplementary pages, headed residence and the foreign income and gains regime, that records your residence and domicile position and lets a non-resident claim the allowances they are entitled to. If you are non-resident or dual-resident for the year, or you are claiming split-year treatment on departure, you need it, and it is attached to the main SA100 return. It is also the specific reason you cannot use HMRC's free online service, because that service does not include the SA109, which is why a non-resident needs commercial software or an agent to file online. ### What are the penalties if I miss the deadline from abroad? They are automatic and they apply wherever you live. Missing the filing deadline is an immediate £100 penalty under Schedule 55 to the Finance Act 2009, even if you owe no tax, followed by daily penalties of £10 a day once the return is more than three months late, and further fixed penalties of £300 at six and twelve months, alongside separate penalties and interest on any tax paid late. Being abroad is not a reasonable excuse in itself. If you are within Making Tax Digital the late-submission regime is a separate points-based one, so a landlord in that system should check which rules apply to them. ### Do I have to make payments on account? You make payments on account, a regime that sits in section 59A of the Taxes Management Act 1970, if your last Self Assessment bill was more than £1,000 and less than 80% of your tax was collected at source. Where they apply, you pay half of the expected bill by 31 January and the other half by 31 July, with a balancing payment the following January. For a non-resident landlord whose rent has had basic-rate tax withheld at source, the position depends on how much of the liability that covered, so it is worth working out the payment on account in advance rather than being surprised by it on 31 January. ### Did the Autumn Budget change the Self Assessment deadlines? Not for the return you are filing now. The Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 announced that, from April 2029, people who make payments on account will move to more regular in-year payments, with automated payment as the default, but that is several years away and still being developed. For the 2025/26 return the deadline remains 31 January 2027 for online filing and payment, and the routes to filing as a non-resident are unchanged, so the Budget is something to note for the future rather than a reason to do anything differently this January. ## Glossary concepts in this article - [Split Year Treatment](https://www.boruconsulting.com/glossary/split-year-treatment): A rule that divides a tax year into a resident and a non-resident part when someone moves country partway through, so they are taxed as a UK or Irish resident only for the part of the year they actually were one. --- Source: https://www.boruconsulting.com/blog/uk-self-assessment-deadline-non-resident