China tax residency: the 183-day rule and the six-year rule
If you’re not domiciled in China, you’re resident for individual income tax in a year you spend 183 days or more there — counting only full 24-hour days, so the days you arrive and leave don’t count. Six such years in a row, with no single trip abroad over 30 days, bring foreign income paid abroad into Chinese tax as well.
China 183-day calculator
Without a home in China, 183 days or more there in a calendar year make you resident. Only a full 24 hours in China is a day, so the days you arrive and leave don’t count.
China tax residency: a home, or 183 days
Article 1 of the Individual Income Tax Law makes you a resident individual if you’re domiciled in China, or not domiciled but have resided in China for 183 days or more in total in a tax year — the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December. A resident is taxed on income from China and abroad; a non-resident, on income from within China.
| At a glance | China |
|---|---|
| The day test | 183 days or more, if you’re not domiciled in China |
| Over | the calendar year |
| A day counts if | you’re in China for the full 24 hours of it |
| Foreign income paid abroad | exempt until the six-year rule is met |
Only full days count
For someone not domiciled in China, the days of residence are the days you stay in China for the full 24 hours. A day with less than 24 hours there — the day you arrive and the day you leave — doesn’t count (MOF and STA Announcement 2019 No. 34).
The six-year rule
A non-domiciled resident with 183 days or more in a year pays tax on income from both inside and outside China only if, in each of the six years before, they also had 183 days or more there and no single trip abroad longer than 30 days. Otherwise, foreign income paid by people or entities abroad is exempt. The six years are counted from 2019: earlier years don’t count.
Worked example
You were in China from 1 May to 10 August: 100 full days, from 2 May to 9 August. Arriving again on 1 September, leave by 23 November — 182 full days this year. Staying all of 23 November would make 183, and you’d be resident for the year.
Japan looks at your base of living instead: see Japan tax residency. Other countries, side by side: 183-day rule by country.
How FlySee counts it
FlySee has no China tracker. The calculator counts China’s way: only a day spent entirely in China is a day, so it answers with the day to leave by. A tax tracker of your own set to count a day at midnight counts the day you arrive too — one day more per trip than China, never late. The six-year rule isn’t counted.