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It can. What decides it changed on 6 April 2025. Domicile no longer governs the scope of UK inheritance tax; long-term UK residence does. If the deceased was a long-term UK resident, their worldwide estate is within UK inheritance tax at 40% above the nil-rate band, wherever they were living when they died. If they were not, only UK-situated assets are caught.
For decades the scope of UK inheritance tax turned on domicile — a common-law concept about where a person treated as their permanent home, and notoriously hard to shed. For deaths on or after 6 April 2025, domicile no longer decides it. The test is long-term UK residence, and it is a count of tax years rather than a judgement about intentions.
HMRC's IHT400 notes state it: “An individual is a long-term UK resident if they have been resident in the UK for at least 10 out of the last 20 tax years immediately before the tax year in which the chargeable event (including death) arises.” Residence in each of those years is settled by the Statutory Residence Test, and tax years run 6 April to 5 April.
The consequence is the same shape as before. A long-term UK resident's worldwide estate is within UK inheritance tax. Someone who is not a long-term UK resident is within it only on their UK-situated assets.
⚠ Leaving the UK does not end it immediately
HMRC's notes: “Where an individual is a long-term UK resident and becomes non-UK resident, they will remain in scope for Inheritance Tax for a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 10 years depending on the amount of time they resided in the UK.” So a recent emigrant who had been here a long time can still have a worldwide estate within UK inheritance tax.
The change shows up on the form itself. Box 6a of the IHT400 asks about domicile and is marked “only for deaths on or before 5 April 2025”; box 6b asks about long-term UK residence and is marked “only for deaths on or after 6 April 2025”.
If the death was on or before 5 April 2025, the old rules still govern the estate, and they are a different exercise altogether.
Domicile of origin. Everyone acquires one at birth, usually their father's domicile at the time (or their mother's, under older rules, where the parents were not married). HMRC's IHT400 notes set out the same position. A domicile of origin does not fall away on moving abroad or taking another citizenship.
Domicile of choice. Acquiring one requires both settling in a new country and intending to remain there permanently or indefinitely. Evidence HMRC weighs includes statements in the will and correspondence, whether a UK property was retained, where the person was registered with doctors and dentists, citizenship, where they voted, where family possessions were kept, and any contingency plans to return.
Deemed domicile. For those deaths, a person was treated as UK-domiciled for inheritance tax if they had been UK-resident for at least 15 of the 20 tax years immediately before the tax year of the event. HMRC's notes also describe a separate ‘formerly domiciled resident’ category, and a rule treating someone as UK-domiciled if they were domiciled in the UK under English law at any time in the 3 years before death.
Domicile has not vanished from the system entirely. HMRC's notes say that if a double taxation convention applies based on the deceased's domicile or deemed domicile, you still give details on Schedule IHT401.
Some assets sit outside the inheritance tax charge whatever else is true of the estate. Two that HMRC's IHT400 notes set out specifically turn on the deceased not being a long-term UK resident.
Foreign currency bank accounts held with certain UK banks. For deaths on or after 6 April 2025, these are excluded property “if the deceased was not a long-term UK resident immediately before their death and was not resident in the UK when they died”. For deaths on or before 5 April 2025 the equivalent condition was domicile outside the UK and not resident or ordinarily resident here. HMRC says an account with any high street bank qualifies, and its helpline will confirm others. The accounts still go in box 52 of the IHT400, with the value deducted at box 92.
UK government securities. These “may be excluded property if the deceased is not a UK resident and meets the qualifying conditions for these to be Free of Tax to Residents Abroad (FOTRA conditions)”. Include them at box 62 and deduct at box 92.
Property held in trusts can also be excluded property, but the rules for settled property were changed alongside the move to long-term UK residence and turn on the settlor's position at the time — including a separate set of transitional rules for property that was excluded property in a settlement on 30 October 2024. This is technical ground; HMRC's treatment is set out in its Inheritance Tax Manual at IHTM47000 onwards.
Where the deceased was not a long-term UK resident — or, for deaths on or before 5 April 2025, not UK-domiciled and not deemed UK-domiciled — UK inheritance tax applies only to assets situated in the UK. Where an asset is situated is determined by legal rules, not by where the owner chose to keep it.
Note that shares are generally treated as situated where the company is registered, not where the shares are physically held or where the company's assets are located. UK ETFs or investment funds with UK registration are therefore UK-situated even if the underlying investments are global.
A significant risk for internationally mobile individuals is that the same assets may be subject to inheritance or estate tax in two countries simultaneously. The UK has estate duty or inheritance tax treaties with a number of countries, which provide relief in these circumstances.
HMRC's Inheritance Tax Manual lists ten jurisdictions with agreed conventions under section 158 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984: the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, the United States of America, Switzerland, France, India, Italy and Pakistan. The precise terms of each convention vary, but they generally provide that where both countries would otherwise tax the same assets, one country gives credit for the tax paid to the other.
Where no treaty exists — which covers the majority of countries — the UK offers limited unilateral double taxation relief for foreign taxes paid on assets also subject to UK IHT. The relief is the lower of the UK IHT and the foreign tax. This does not fully eliminate double taxation in all cases.
Relief must be claimed
Double taxation relief is not applied automatically. It must be claimed on form IHT400, supported by evidence of the foreign tax paid. Executors should retain all documentation of foreign inheritance or estate taxes paid, including receipts and assessments from the foreign tax authority.
Transfers between spouses and civil partners are generally exempt from UK inheritance tax. There is one cap, and its basis moved with everything else on 6 April 2025.
HMRC's IHT402 notes set out the current rule: from 6 April 2025 “There is no limit to spouse exemption unless the deceased was a long-term UK resident and the surviving spouse was not a long-term UK resident, when it is limited to the Inheritance Tax nil rate band” — £325,000. Assets passing to the survivor above that are chargeable at 40%.
The same notes give the earlier positions. Between 13 November 1974 and 5 April 2025 there was no limit unless the deceased was UK-domiciled and the surviving spouse was not, in which case it was £55,000 — raised to the nil rate band after 6 April 2013. For first deaths between 22 March 1972 and 12 November 1974 the exemption was capped at £15,000, and before 22 March 1972, under estate duty, there was no spouse exemption at all.
The cap is not just a cost at the first death. It reduces how much of the nil rate band the first estate leaves unused, which is what a later claim on IHT402 transfers. HMRC's manual works this through at IHTM43043.
The election
A surviving spouse or civil partner who is not a long-term UK resident can elect to be treated as one for inheritance tax purposes, under sections 267ZA and 267ZB of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984. HMRC's manual says that where such an election was made before the first death, “the limit on the amount of spouse exemption will not apply”. The trade is that the elector's own worldwide estate then comes within UK inheritance tax.
This most commonly arises in international marriages, and where a couple has emigrated and one of them has been out of the UK long enough to fall outside long-term UK residence while the other has not.
If there is any doubt about whether the deceased was a long-term UK resident, or about whether the estate is within UK inheritance tax at all, these are the things that follow.
The tax is due by the end of the sixth month after the month of death: HMRC's notes say interest runs “from the first day of the seventh month after the month in which the person died”, whatever the reason for the delay. The form has a different, later deadline — “You must send form IHT400 to us within 12 months of the date of death”, with a penalty of up to £200 for filing late without reasonable excuse and up to £3,000 more if the delay reaches two years. If the residence position is uncertain, file within the 12 months and say so.
Long-term UK residence is a count: 10 out of the last 20 tax years, with residence in each year settled by the Statutory Residence Test. That makes it a documentary exercise rather than a question of intention — travel records, employment history, tax returns filed here and abroad. Where the count is close to the line, or where a double taxation convention may apply on the basis of domicile, a specialist in international private client tax can put the position to HMRC.
For a death on or after 6 April 2025, the evidence that matters is where the deceased was resident in each of the last 20 tax years. For an earlier death, where the old domicile test still applies, it is wider: letters, emails, statements in the will, where they lived, worked, voted, held bank accounts and were registered for health services. Once the estate is administered, this evidence becomes harder to recover.
If HMRC opens an enquiry, the assessment can take a long time to settle. Distributing before the tax position is resolved leaves the executor personally liable for what the estate can no longer pay. Section 240 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 gives HMRC four years to recover additional tax, six where the loss of tax was careless and twenty where it was deliberate.
⚠ Important
The difference between being in and out of scope is the difference between 40% on a worldwide estate and 40% on the UK-situated assets alone, so the question is worth getting right. Two traps in particular: the 3-to-10-year tail means recent emigrants can still be in scope, and for a death on or before 5 April 2025 it is the old domicile test that applies, not this one.
For a full overview of UK inheritance tax rates, thresholds, and exemptions, see our UK inheritance tax guide 2026/27. You can also estimate potential IHT liability using our inheritance tax calculator.
Applying for probate as an overseas executor?
If you are based abroad and need to apply for UK probate, see our companion guide: how to apply for UK probate when you live abroad.
Understanding the full UK probate process
For a complete overview of the UK probate process from start to finish, see our complete UK probate guide 2026.
Expat IHT guide
Our companion guide covers the domicile rules in more depth. Read it alongside this page: domicile governs deaths on or before 5 April 2025, and long-term UK residence governs deaths after that. UK domicile and inheritance tax: a guide for expats.
For a death on or after 6 April 2025, on those facts almost certainly only on his UK assets. The test is long-term UK residence — at least 10 of the last 20 tax years resident in the UK — and 30 years in Australia puts him well outside it, including the 3-to-10-year tail. Domicile of origin no longer matters for this. For a death on or before 5 April 2025, the old domicile test applies and the answer may be different.
Where the deceased was not a long-term UK resident, UK inheritance tax applies to UK-situated assets: UK property, UK bank accounts, shares in UK-registered companies, and physical assets located in the UK. Overseas property, offshore bank accounts and shares in foreign-registered companies are outside scope. Two UK-held categories can be excluded property in these cases — foreign currency accounts with certain UK banks, and government securities meeting the FOTRA conditions.
Not for deaths on or after 6 April 2025. It was replaced by long-term UK residence: at least 10 of the last 20 tax years. Leaving the UK ends that status only after a tail of between 3 and 10 years, depending on how long the person had been resident. The 15-of-20 deemed domicile rule still governs deaths on or before 5 April 2025.
Yes, in certain circumstances. HMRC's manual lists ten jurisdictions with conventions under section 158 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984: the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, the United States of America, Switzerland, France, India, Italy and Pakistan. Where no convention exists, unilateral relief is available in some cases. Relief must be claimed on the IHT400 with supporting evidence of the foreign tax paid.
For a death on or after 6 April 2025, the answer is usually reconstructible: long-term UK residence is a count of tax years, with each year settled by the Statutory Residence Test. Where the deceased was not a long-term UK resident, complete Schedule IHT401a and fill in the rest of the IHT400 with UK assets only, apart from lifetime transfers made while they were a long-term UK resident. Where a double taxation convention may apply on the basis of domicile or deemed domicile, the details go on Schedule IHT401.