TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- →More than 3 hours of UK work on a day can make it a UK work day under the statutory residence test.
- →The third automatic overseas test can fail if UK work days are too high (often discussed at 31 days).
- →Days physically in the UK and UK work days are different logs.
- →A running log is not an HMRC determination. RDR3 is the manual to read.
Short answer
Under the UK statutory residence test, a day can count as a UK work day when you do more than 3 hours of work in the UK, even if you are not thinking of that day as a "presence" day. Work-day totals feed specific automatic tests. They are not the same list as nights spent in the UK.
What to log
- Date
- Whether the work in the UK exceeded 3 hours
- Whether the day was overseas work instead
- Leave unmarked days unmarked. An empty cell is not "overseas" and not "UK work"
The third automatic overseas test is one place this count matters: too many UK work days (the figure commonly cited is more than 30) can stop that automatic overseas outcome. Read HMRC's Residence, Domicile and Remittance Basis Manual (RDR3) before you rely on a threshold.
Domicyle Premium UK Work-Days Log keeps UK work days separate from physical presence. The product states that this log is not a Statutory Residence Test result.
Educational planning only — not tax advice.