Tax residency and the 183-day rule: where are you tax resident?

What is tax residency, and why is it different from the residence permit in your passport?

Tax residency is a legal concept separate from nationality and from your residence permit. You can hold one country's passport, have a work permit in a second country, and be tax resident in a third.

It matters because a tax resident is usually taxed on income from anywhere, while a non-resident is taxed only on income from that country. So the first question for any expat is not what the tax rate is, but where am I tax resident this year.

Countries usually use two tests:

• The days test: how many days you spend in the country in a year. The best known figure is 183 days, more than half the year.
• The ties test: where your permanent home is, where your family is, and where your work and financial interests are.

In most countries, meeting either test is enough to make you resident.

How do the Gulf states decide tax residency?

UAE: Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022 treats an individual as resident if any of the following applies:

• Their usual or primary place of residence and their centre of financial and personal interests are in the UAE.
• They are in the UAE for 183 days or more in any 12 consecutive months.
• They are in the UAE for 90 days or more in any 12 consecutive months, if they are a UAE or GCC national or hold a valid residence permit, and they have a permanent place of residence in the UAE or work there.

The days do not have to be consecutive, and part of a day counts as a full day, according to the Federal Tax Authority's guide.

Saudi Arabia: Article 3 of the Income Tax Law treats an individual as resident in a tax year if they have a permanent home in the Kingdom and stay there at least 30 days, or if they stay there at least 183 days. But this does not mean tax on your salary: the law taxes resident non-Saudis who run a business, and a salary is not a business in this sense.

Why does this matter if your salary is tax free? Because a Gulf tax residency certificate is what you need to use double tax treaties with your home country. The details are in the guide to double taxation.

The rules in Turkey, Germany, the UK and France

Turkey: Article 4 of Income Tax Law No. 193 treats a person as resident if their domicile is in Turkey, or if they stay there for more than 6 continuous months in a calendar year, and temporary departures do not break that period. Article 5 excludes foreigners who are there for a specific temporary assignment, or for study, medical treatment or tourism.

Germany: Section 1 of the Income Tax Act fully taxes anyone with a home or habitual abode in Germany. Section 9 of the Fiscal Code treats a continuous stay of more than 6 months as habitual abode from the first day, and short breaks are not counted. Note that simply having a home available to you in Germany may be enough, even if you spend fewer days there.

UK: the Statutory Residence Test makes you automatically resident if you spend 183 days or more in the UK in the tax year. It makes you automatically non-resident in cases including: fewer than 16 days if you were resident in one of the previous three tax years, fewer than 46 days if you were not, or full-time work abroad with fewer than 91 days in the UK and fewer than 31 days working there, subject to other conditions. Between these cases, residency is settled by the number of ties you have.

France: Article 4 B of the General Tax Code makes you resident if any one of three applies: your home or main place of stay is in France, you carry out your main professional activity there, or the centre of your economic interests is there. No number of days decides it on its own.

Example: an engineer moving between Dubai and Istanbul

A Jordanian engineer holds a work residence permit in Dubai and rents a flat there. In 2026 he spent 150 days in Dubai, 200 days in Istanbul on a project, and the rest of the year in Amman.

• UAE: he did not reach 183 days, but he passed 90 days, holds a valid residence permit, has a home and works in the UAE. So he is UAE tax resident under the third test.
• Turkey: he stayed more than 6 months. If his presence is tied to a specific temporary assignment, he may fall under the Article 5 exclusion. If not, Turkey may treat him as resident.

The likely result: two countries treat him as resident in the same year. He does not get to choose. The double tax treaty between the two countries, if there is one, decides, using the tie-breaker rules in the next section. Either way, Turkey may tax the pay for work done on its territory for more than 183 days.

This is an illustrative example to explain the rules, not a ruling on a real case.

What if two countries treat you as resident? The tie-breaker rules

Most double tax treaties follow Article 4 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. It settles dual residency in the following order, moving to the next test only if the one before does not decide it:

• Permanent home: where do you have a permanent home available to you?
• Centre of vital interests: if you have a home in both countries, where are your personal and economic ties stronger? Where are your family, your work and your accounts?
• Habitual abode: where do you regularly spend more time?
• Nationality: if the tests above do not decide it.
• Mutual agreement: the two tax authorities negotiate.

Some treaties differ from the Model, so read the text of the treaty between the two countries in question.

Leaving a country: when does your tax residency end?

A common mistake is to think that tax residency ends the moment you leave. In fact:

• Countries that rely on homes and ties, such as Germany and France, may keep treating you as resident if you keep a home available to you or your family stays there.
• The UK counts days by tax year and has special rules for the year you leave.
• In countries that count days over 12 consecutive months, such as the UAE, your residency may stretch into part of the following year.

So keep proof of the date you left: the end of your lease, the cancellation of your residence permit, entry and exit stamps, and your new employment contract. And if your home country taxes residents on their worldwide income, a tax residency certificate from the country where you work is your strongest evidence.

What should you do in practice?

• Count your days in each country every year, and keep a travel log.
• Ask for a tax residency certificate from the country where you work if you have income in another country. In the UAE the Federal Tax Authority issues it, and in Saudi Arabia ZATCA issues it.
• Check whether the two countries have a double tax treaty.
• If you are Egyptian, read Do Egyptians abroad pay tax in Egypt?.
• When planning a move, compare take-home pay between the two countries on the comparison pages, such as UAE or Germany and Jordan or Turkey.

This site's calculators assume you are tax resident for the whole year in the country you select. If your residency is dual or partial, the result is an estimate and you need a licensed tax adviser.

Sources

1. Federal Tax Authority: Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022 on tax residency
2. ZATCA: Income Tax Law (Articles 2 and 3)
3. Turkey: Income Tax Law No. 193 (Articles 4 and 5)
4. Germany: Income Tax Act, Section 1
5. Germany: Fiscal Code, Section 9 (habitual abode)
6. GOV.UK: Guidance note for Statutory Residence Test (RDR3)
7. France: Official Public Finance Bulletin BOI-IR-CHAMP-10 (Article 4 B)
8. OECD: Model Tax Convention 2017 (Article 4)
9. Federal Tax Authority: Tax Residency Certificate issuance
10. ZATCA: Tax Residency Certificate for Individuals

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Rules change; check with the authority or a qualified adviser before you act. How we work.