Working from United States as a United Kingdom resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about United States

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

1. Significant issueTax residency

   Past 183 days you meet the substantial presence test

   At this level of presence you clear both limbs of the substantial presence test: 31 or more days this year and a weighted three-year total past 183. You become a US resident alien taxed on worldwide income at the same graduated rates as a citizen, with no new-resident regime, no non-dom basis and no remittance option anywhere in the system.

2. Significant issuePermanent residency and citizenship

   Citizenship and green card status both mean worldwide taxation for life

   A resident alien or citizen is taxed on all income from all sources worldwide, at the same graduated rates as everyone else, with no new-resident regime, no non-dom basis and no remittance option anywhere in the system. Every US treaty's saving clause means a citizen or green card holder gets almost nothing from a treaty tie-breaker on their own income.

3. Significant issueMoving your company

   Becoming a US tax resident can turn your own foreign company into a taxed CFC

   If US shareholders end up owning more than 50 percent of a foreign company, it becomes a controlled foreign corporation, and the moment a founder becomes a US tax resident their own foreign company usually qualifies. Its undistributed profit is then currently taxed as GILTI, renamed Net CFC Tested Income for tax years starting after 2025, at ordinary rates up to 37 percent unless a section 962 election is made.

4. Significant issueRight to work

   Working for a US employer while on visitor status is local labor for hire

   The 9 FAM permitted-activity list stops at meetings, negotiation and training. Receiving a salary from a US employer, or acting as a local employee or contractor, requires real work authorization such as H-1B, L-1, O-1, E-2, TN or an EAD. Local US employment without authorization exposes the worker to removal and the employer to I-9 penalties.

5. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   Compensation is US-source the moment the work is physically performed here

   The IRS rule is unforgiving: the place personal services are performed determines the source of the income, regardless of the contract, the payer or where the money lands. A foreign employee working days from a US address has generated US-source pay for those days, foreign employer and home-country payroll included.

6. Significant issueResidency routes

   There is no nomad, retirement or passive-income green card route

   The US grants permanent residence only through family, employment, investment or humanitarian channels, plus the diversity lottery. There is no D7 or Rentista equivalent, and no route at all for a passive retiree or a pure remote worker with no US employer, investment or extraordinary record.

What tends to surprise people here

• No visitor status permits ongoing remote work performed on US soil
• Compensation becomes US-source the moment work is physically performed here
• No totalization agreement means full FICA exposure with no coordination

Tax treaty between United Kingdom and United States