UK relocation date for tax purposes and vacation plans

I'm currently planning on moving to the UK in January 2022, a date picked to allow me to split some capital gains tax over two US tax years before I become subject to UK taxes.

As I understand it, stocks & shares I sell before moving to the UK are not UK taxable even if the sale falls in the same UK tax year as the move. For example, if I sell stock in the US on Dec 10th 2021 and on Jan 10th 2022, and move back to the UK on Jan 20th 2022, no UK tax on those sales is due.

However, I want to spend some time in September 2021 and over Christmas 2021 in the UK for some UK family events. Probably 4-6 weeks of time. I'm concerned that if I then relocate permanently on (say) Jan 20th 2022, HRMC will look at my dates and say 'you really became resident in September/December 2021'. At which point those capital gains become UK taxable.

I can find anything online that deals with this. Anyone know anything?

You will be fine, the 4-6 weeks stay before your permanent move will not be counted, unless perhaps you access benefits only available to residents such as free NHS doctor visits. I’m assuming you don’t already have a residence in the UK that could be considered home, if so then take a look at the UK statutory residence test.

Agree, this will be fine. Avoid anything that looks like setting up residence while you're visiting - it might be tempting to start setting up bank accounts, signing a lease, buying a car, whatever. You could probably argue with it, but easiest to just put that off until you actually move.

Use the right visa too - come as a tourist in Sept & Christmas, and use whatever long-term visa you're using to enter in January - just stacks up the evidence.

I think my original question was flawed. I've been reading through the HRMC documentation (again :-)), and now I'm thinking split year taxation only applies in cases where you pass the Statutory Residence Test (SRT). For tax year 2021-22, under the SRT system, I have no automatic inclusions/exclusions, and just the one UK tie. If I'm reading it right, that means I can spend up to 182 days in the UK that tax year and still be considered non-resident. i.e. as long as I spend less than 183 days in the UK, I won't be taxed on my US gains until the following (UK) tax year.

I'm only about 80% confident of this interpretation as I half remember something overriding this.

@tubaleiter
Good points, but my bad, I should have made it clearer I'm originally from the UK (moved to the US 18 years ago when my job moved here) and have UK citizenship (so no visa required). I have a UK bank account and rent out my old UK home (which I have to file UK tax forms each year).

I did once have to use the NHS while non-resident. In theory, as a non-resident UK citizen it's only free if you intend to be staying in the country for 3 months or more (or, at that time, were resident in a EU or other country with a reciprocal agreement). I was honest when I went in for treatment and tried to pay (it would have been covered by my US insurance anyway), but the staff had no idea how to process it and basically just took contact details and I never heard anything from them ever again.

@DaveB Fair enough, still think you'll be fine. Might still be careful about only doing "tourist" things, but your to-do list is a lot shorter than your average new UK immigrant to the UK

In 2011 we rented a house in England and stayed for 7 months, arriving in early March, and we spent 6 weeks outside in the country in Europe on 3 different trips so we were well inside the residency rules back then. However, once we were back in Texas we received a letter from our UK bank with an HMRC for to complete because it appeared from our ATM usage that we may have spent enough time to become tax resident. We completed the form and sent it to them but it was a reminder that banks are required to monitor transactions and report activity to HMRC if it appears that someone may be a tax resident without paying taxes.