What should I check each year on UK tax, pensions and property?

Living in Canada doesn’t switch off the UK. If you have UK rent, savings, pensions or property, a short check each year keeps you right with HMRC and the CRA, and stops you paying tax twice.

Your yearly check-up

1. File your UK tax return if you have UK rental or other untaxed UK income
2. Declare worldwide income in Canada, including UK rent, interest and pensions, and claim a foreign tax credit for UK tax paid
3. File form T1135 if your specified foreign property cost more than C$100,000 at any time in the year
4. Check your National Insurance record and State Pension forecast, and decide about voluntary contributions
5. Re-register to vote in UK elections if your registration is due
6. Review your wills and beneficiary designations. See Do we need a will in Canada?

Two tax years, two returns

• As a non-resident you can’t use HMRC’s own online service to file. Use paper, commercial software or an accountant, and include the residence pages (SA109)
• British citizens keep the UK Personal Allowance (£12,570) against UK income
• If last year’s UK bill was £1,000 or more, you may need to make payments on account on 31 January and 31 July

Renting out your UK home

Under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, your letting agent (or your tenant, if the rent is over £100 a week and there’s no agent) takes basic-rate tax off the rent and pays it to HMRC each quarter. You can apply to HMRC to receive the rent with no tax taken off. Either way, you still declare the rent on a UK return.

Under the UK–Canada tax treaty, the UK can tax rent from UK property. You also declare it on your Canadian return, in Canadian dollars, and claim a foreign tax credit for the UK tax, so you don’t pay twice. Canadian rules on allowable expenses and depreciation (capital cost allowance) differ from UK rules, so keep separate records. See Should I rent out or sell my UK home?

Reporting foreign property: form T1135

If the total cost of your “specified foreign property” was more than C$100,000 at any time in the year, you must file form T1135 with your return. It includes UK bank accounts, ISAs, shares and funds, and a UK home you rent out. A home you use mainly yourself, and UK pensions, are not included. You don’t file it for the year you first became resident in Canada. Late filing carries penalties even if no tax is owed.

ISAs and UK savings

You can keep your ISA, but you can’t pay in once you’re not UK resident. The UK still treats it as tax-free. Canada doesn’t: interest, dividends and gains inside an ISA are taxable in Canada like any other investment. Some UK funds also have complex Canadian reporting rules. Many people review their ISAs with a cross-border adviser soon after arriving.

Your UK pensions

• State Pension: paid in Canada but frozen. It stays at the rate you first get abroad, with no yearly rises. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026–27
• Voluntary NI: since 6 April 2026 you can only pay Class 3 from abroad (£18.40 a week), and only if you lived in the UK for 10 years in a row or paid 10 years of contributions. Check your record and forecast on GOV.UK first
• Workplace and personal pensions: once you draw them, you declare them on your Canadian return. The treaty decides where they are taxed; UK government service pensions (such as civil service, NHS and teachers’ pensions) are usually taxed in the UK. Ask HMRC to apply the treaty using form DT-Individual
• Transfers: moving a UK pension to Canada means a qualifying overseas scheme (QROPS), and a 25% overseas transfer charge applies unless an exemption fits. See What happens to my UK pension?
• From 6 April 2027, most unused UK pension funds and death benefits count towards your estate for UK inheritance tax

Selling UK property, inheritance tax and your vote

• If you sell UK property as a non-resident, report it to HMRC within 60 days of completion, even if there’s no tax or you made a loss
• Canada taxes the gain too, with a foreign tax credit for UK tax. For property you owned when you arrived, Canada usually only taxes the gain since your arrival date, valued at market value then. Get a valuation
• Since 6 April 2025 UK inheritance tax depends on long-term UK residence: 10 of the last 20 tax years. After you leave, you stay in scope for 3 to 10 tax years, and UK property is always in scope
• Keep a UK bank account open for UK rent, pension payments and bills: many banks close accounts for customers who move abroad, so check your bank’s rules
• Since January 2024, British citizens abroad can vote in UK general elections however long they’ve lived abroad. Register as an overseas elector; it lasts up to 3 years