Working from United Kingdom as a Belgium resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about United Kingdom

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in United Kingdom, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueImmigration and visa

   Staying past the visitor ceiling without a valid route triggers overstay bans

   There is no UK digital nomad visa, so a stay beyond the 6-month Standard Visitor ceiling needs a real work, family or other substantive route. Overstaying instead carries mandatory re-entry bans from 1 year (voluntary, self-funded departure) up to 10 years (removal or deception), with only a 30-day grace period for a self-funded voluntary departure.

2. Significant issueTax residency

   183 days or more makes you UK tax resident automatically

   The first automatic UK test is a straight day count: 183 days or more present in the UK in the tax year makes you resident regardless of ties, purpose or intent. Resident status brings UK taxation of worldwide income and gains, subject to any treaty relief.

3. Significant issueRight to work

   Delivering paid work to a UK client while physically in the UK needs a work route, not a visit

   Visitor status never covers paid or unpaid work for a UK company, self-employment in the UK, or active participation in the UK labour market. Appendix Visitor Permitted Activities expressly allows a business visitor to negotiate and sign deals and contracts, and to be briefed on a UK client's requirements, so meeting or contracting with a UK client is not itself the problem. The line is crossed when you actually do the work for that UK client or employer while physically present in the UK, regardless of who pays you.

4. Significant issuePermanent establishment risk

   Signing contracts or managing from the UK creates real dependent-agent PE risk

   A dependent agent who habitually exercises authority in the UK to conclude contracts on the company's behalf creates a PE regardless of whether there is any UK office. A deemed PE brings the employer into UK corporation tax (25% main rate above GBP 250,000, 19% up to GBP 50,000) on the attributable profits.

5. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running your foreign company's management from the UK can make the company UK tax resident

   A company is UK tax resident if it is UK-incorporated or if its central management and control is exercised in the UK, the classic case-law test. Relocating yourself while continuing to run your foreign company's board decisions from a UK address can drag the whole company into UK corporation tax on its worldwide profits, and holding board meetings abroad does not save it if decisions are actually made in the UK.

6. Needs checkingPersonal income tax

   No in-force treaty means no 183-day safety net

   Brazil's 2022 UK treaty is signed but not yet in force, so BR-UK workers have no treaty tie-breaker or guaranteed relief, only unilateral UK foreign tax credit relief, which is real but less favourable and more paperwork than a treaty. The UK-Brazil aircrew salaries agreement in force is much narrower and does not cover this situation.

What tends to surprise people here

• Delivering paid work to a UK client while physically present needs a work route, not a visit
• Ten years of UK residence brings worldwide assets into inheritance tax, with a tail after leaving
• No in-force tax treaty removes the 183-day safety net for some nationalities

Tax treaty between Belgium and United Kingdom