Most of the advice online about keeping foreign rental income offshore is out of date. The remittance basis was abolished on 6 April 2025 and replaced with a residence-based system.
If you have been researching this and found advice about keeping foreign rental income offshore so that it is not taxed in the UK, stop — almost all of it is out of date. The remittance basis was abolished with effect from 6 April 2025.
Under the old regime, a UK resident who was non-domiciled could elect to be taxed only on foreign income and gains that they actually brought into the UK. Rent from an overseas property that stayed in an overseas account was, broadly, outside the UK charge — at the cost of an annual charge for longer-term users and the loss of the personal allowance.
From 6 April 2025 the concept of domicile was removed from the income tax and capital gains rules and replaced with a residence-based system. In its place is a relief for new arrivals: broadly, someone who becomes UK resident after a long period of non-residence can claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first few years of UK residence. It is generous while it lasts, and it is time-limited — it is not a permanent shelter and it is not available to someone who has been UK resident throughout.
There were also transitional provisions for people who had used the old remittance basis and had foreign income and gains sitting offshore from earlier years, allowing them to be brought into the UK at a reduced rate during a limited window. If that describes you, the position is genuinely technical and worth professional advice rather than a web page.
For the great majority of British buyers — people who live in the UK, have always lived in the UK, and are buying a property abroad — the practical answer is simple and has not really changed: your Thai rental profit is taxable in the UK as it arises, whether or not you bring the money home. Leaving the distributions in a Thai account does not defer or avoid the charge.
What you do get is relief for the Thai tax paid on the same income, through the double taxation agreement, and the ordinary deduction of allowable letting expenses before the profit is struck. Report it on the foreign pages as set out in declaring overseas property on a UK tax return.
A note on figures. Rates, allowances and thresholds change at every Budget, and this page is written as at July 2026. We have deliberately kept specific numbers off it and linked to HMRC instead, so that you are reading the current figure rather than one we published months ago. The mechanics below are stable; the numbers are not. This is general information and not tax advice — take advice on your own circumstances before you act.
Primary sources
Want to understand the tax position before you start looking at property?
See if you qualify →No. The remittance basis was abolished from 6 April 2025. If you are UK resident, foreign rental profit is taxable in the UK as it arises, whether or not the money is brought to the UK. Leaving it offshore neither defers nor avoids the charge.
A residence-based system, with a time-limited relief for new arrivals - broadly, people becoming UK resident after a long period of non-residence can claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first few years of UK residence. It is not available to someone who has been UK resident throughout.
Transitional provisions allowed previously unremitted foreign income and gains to be brought into the UK at a reduced rate during a limited window. This is technical and the timing matters, so take professional advice rather than relying on general guidance.
For most UK-resident buyers, no. The profit goes on the foreign pages of your Self Assessment return, allowable expenses come off first, and Foreign Tax Credit Relief covers the Thai tax paid on the same income.
Reviewed 2026-07-20 · Written by James Allwinton, who runs the research and the numbers behind every introduction at The Expat Investor. We are an introducer, not a financial, legal or tax adviser — this is general information, not advice.
How we source this: UK tax mechanics follow HMRC's published guidance on GOV.UK, linked inline on each page, and the UK–Thailand double taxation convention. Rates and thresholds change at each Budget, so we link to the live HMRC page rather than reprinting figures that go stale. This is general information, not tax advice — your own position depends on your residence, your other income and your holding structure. Figures for any specific building — price, service charge, sinking fund and the net yield actually achieved — are confirmed with you privately rather than published here.