HM Treasury have published a summary of responses to the 2011 consultation on a test of statutory residence. The document also contains draft legislation and further consultation questions. Responses are required by 13 September 2012.

The consultation proposes new statutory rules to define tax residence and seeks views on their design and implementation. As part of this consultation, the Government is also seeking views on options to reform the concept of ordinary residence, which currently lacks a statutory definition. It is stressed that this consultation will only cover the issue of tax residence in the UK for individuals and will not cover the residence of companies.

HMRC is also considering the possibility of providing an interactive online tool to enable individuals to ‘self-assess’ their residence status when the new statutory definition is introduced. A prototype of this tool is already available and interested parties are invited to make use of this to assess how a statutory test could operate in practice.

The consultation and related documents are available at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consult_statutory_residence_test.htm