US UK treaty Article 14 exempts a UK resident's salary from US tax for work done on US business trips only if three conditions all hold. You must be in the US for no more than 183 days in any twelve-month period that starts or ends in the tax year. You must be paid by an employer that is not US resident. And no US permanent establishment of that employer can bear the cost.
Most travellers check the day count against one calendar year. The treaty test rolls, so two moderate years back to back can fail it. In our work with UK engineers and consultants who fly to the US every few weeks, the rolling window and salary recharges cause almost every failed claim.
What US UK treaty Article 14 says
Article 14 of the 2001 United States–United Kingdom Income Tax Convention covers income from employment. Paragraph 1 sets the default rule: the country where you physically do the work may tax the pay for that work. Paragraph 2 adds the short-visit exemption. The full text sits on the IRS United Kingdom tax treaty documents page.
Who US UK treaty Article 14 protects
The exemption protects a UK tax resident who is not a US citizen or green card holder. A US citizen living in London cannot use Article 14 against US tax, because the saving clause in Article 1(4) preserves the US right to tax its citizens. Our guide to saving clause exceptions lists the few articles that do survive it. Article 14 is not one of them.
The three conditions side by side
Each condition tests something different, and failing any one of them means the US can tax the US-workday share of your pay from the first day.
| Condition | What it tests | How claims usually fail |
|---|---|---|
| Article 14(2)(a): 183 days | Days of physical presence in any rolling twelve months starting or ending in the tax year | Counting each calendar year on its own; leaving out weekends and travel days |
| Article 14(2)(b): non-US employer | Who pays, or on whose behalf you are paid | A US affiliate runs payroll for you or pays a per-diem allowance |
| Article 14(2)(c): no US PE cost | Whether a US branch or fixed place of business bears your pay | Salary is recharged to a US branch under a cost-sharing agreement |
Counting a day
Treaty practice counts any day of physical presence, including arrival and departure days, weekends and sick days. A Monday-to-Friday trip that starts with a Sunday flight is six days, not five.
The rolling window
The phrase "commencing or ending in the taxable year" means the test looks backwards and forwards. For the 2026 US tax year, any twelve-month window that starts in 2026 or ends in 2026 counts, so the earliest window runs from 2 January 2025 to 1 January 2026, and the latest from 31 December 2026 to 30 December 2027. One bad window is enough.
Worked example: a rolling-window failure
Consider a British structural engineer who is UK resident and employed by a UK consultancy with no US office. Her illustrative salary is £96,000, which we convert at an illustrative $1.30 to $124,800. She works 240 days a year. Her US trip log looks like this:
| Period | US trips | Days present |
|---|---|---|
| Jan–Jun 2025 | 1 short visit | 12 |
| Jul–Dec 2025 | 3 site phases | 118 |
| Jan–Jun 2026 | 2 commissioning trips | 71 |
| Jul–Dec 2026 | 1 handover visit | 9 |
Neither calendar year comes close to 183 days: 2025 totals 130 and 2026 totals 80. However, the window from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 contains 189 days. That window starts in 2025 and ends in 2026, so the engineer fails Article 14(2)(a) for both US tax years.
What the failure costs
Her US-source wages follow a workday split. If 52 of her 240 workdays in 2026 were in the US, the US can tax 52/240 of her pay, or $27,040. A nonresident alien filing Form 1040-NR generally gets no standard deduction, so in this simplified example the 2026 federal tax is about $2,997 using the 2026 single rates in IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. HMRC then gives credit for the US tax against UK tax on the same income, so the main cost is the compliance work plus any state tax.
How a trip log would have prevented it
Moving the first commissioning trip from February to mid-July 2026, or splitting the 2025 site phases across two engineers, would have kept every window under 183 days.
The employer and PE conditions
When a US affiliate pays
If a US group company pays your salary, a bonus or a daily allowance, the payment comes from a US resident and Article 14(2)(b) fails for that pay. A US per-diem card issued by the American subsidiary can be enough. Form 8233 does not cure it: Form 8233 asks a withholding agent to stop withholding on pay that is already treaty-exempt, and it cannot make taxable pay exempt.
Recharges to a US branch
Where your UK employer has a US branch, office or project site that counts as a permanent establishment under Article 5, recharging your salary to it fails Article 14(2)(c). Intercompany recharges to a separate US subsidiary raise a related question of who the real employer is. Ask your finance team how your time is billed before assuming the exemption applies.
Filing when the exemption applies
Meeting US UK treaty Article 14 does not mean doing nothing. Working in the US is generally treated as engaging in a US trade or business. The IRS Form 1040-NR instructions require a nonresident alien engaged in a US trade or business to file even if all the income is exempt under a treaty. The treaty-exempt wages are reported on Schedule OI.
Form 8833
Treasury Regulation section 301.6114-1(c) waives the separate Form 8833 disclosure for treaty positions that reduce tax on dependent personal services income. An Article 14 claim normally falls inside that waiver. A treaty tie-breaker claim does not, which our guide to the US-UK tie-breaker rule explains.
State tax and the 90-day rule
US states are not bound by federal tax treaties unless their own law adopts them. California, for example, does not follow treaty exemptions, so treaty-exempt federal wages can still be taxable there. Separately, section 864(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code ignores visits of 90 days or fewer paid $3,000 or less by a foreign employer not doing business in the US.
Business traveller checklist
- Log every US day, including travel days and weekends, in one spreadsheet that covers at least 24 months.
- Before each trip, calculate the highest rolling twelve-month total, not the calendar-year total.
- Confirm in writing that your salary, bonus and allowances are paid by the UK employer.
- Ask whether any of your cost is recharged to a US branch, office or project entity.
- If you also become a resident under the substantial presence test, review residence first, because a resident cannot use Article 14.
- File Form 1040-NR with Schedule OI if you worked in the US, even when the wages are exempt.
- Check the state rules for every state where you worked.
Our cross-border taxation pillar covers how residence, source and treaty relief fit together, and our 183-day rule comparison sets the treaty test against the UK, US and UAE residence rules.
How Tranzesta can help
We build the rolling day-count model for UK employers and their travelling staff, test the employer and PE conditions against how payroll and recharges actually run, and prepare Form 1040-NR and UK relief claims when a window is breached. If your team has US trips booked for 2027, book a consultation and we will check the windows before the flights are bought.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Article 14 of the US-UK tax treaty?
Article 14 of the 2001 US-UK Income Tax Convention governs tax on employment income. It lets the country where the work is done tax the pay, but exempts a resident of the other country if they spend no more than 183 days there in any twelve-month period, are paid by a non-resident employer and their pay is not borne by a local permanent establishment.
Do weekends count toward the treaty 183-day limit?
Yes, under the US-UK tax treaty any day of physical presence counts toward the 183-day limit in Article 14, including weekends, public holidays, sick days and the days you arrive and leave.
Can a UK employee work in the US for 183 days every year tax-free?
Usually not, because the Article 14 test applies to any rolling twelve-month window that starts or ends in the tax year, not only the calendar year. Spending 150 days in the second half of one year and 100 days in the first half of the next breaches the limit even though neither calendar year exceeds 183 days.
Does a UK business traveller need to file a US tax return if the treaty exempts their pay?
Generally yes. The IRS Form 1040-NR instructions require a nonresident alien engaged in a US trade or business, which includes working in the US as an employee, to file even when the income is exempt under a tax treaty, reporting the treaty claim on Schedule OI.
Does Article 14 apply to US citizens living in the UK?
No. The saving clause in Article 1(4) of the US-UK tax treaty lets the United States tax its citizens and green card holders as if the treaty did not exist, so a US citizen resident in the UK cannot use Article 14 to exempt pay earned on US trips from US tax.
What happens to UK tax if the US taxes my business trip salary?
A UK resident stays taxable in the UK on worldwide employment income, so the US-workday share is taxed in both countries. HMRC gives foreign tax credit relief under the treaty's elimination of double taxation article for the US federal tax paid on that income, which you claim through Self Assessment.
How is a UAE-based employee on US trips treated?
There is no comprehensive income tax treaty between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, so a UAE resident non-US citizen cannot claim any treaty exemption for US business trips. Apart from the narrow section 864(b)(1) rule for pay of $3,000 or less over 90 days or fewer, their US-workday pay is US-source and taxable from the first day.
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