Germany tax residency: a home or more than six months
You’re fully liable to German income tax if you have a residence there — a home you keep and use — or your habitual abode. A connected stay of more than six months makes Germany your habitual abode from its first day; brief interruptions don’t break it.
Germany tax residency: a home or a habitual abode
Under § 1 of the Income Tax Act (EStG), anyone with a residence (Wohnsitz) or a habitual abode (gewöhnlicher Aufenthalt) in Germany has unlimited income tax liability there:
- Residence — you have a home under circumstances showing you’ll keep it and use it (§ 8 AO). Days don’t matter.
- Habitual abode — you’re in Germany under circumstances showing you’re there not just temporarily (§ 9 AO). A connected stay of more than six months always counts as one, from its first day, and brief interruptions aren’t counted against it.
- Not a habitual abode — a stay purely for a visit, recreation, a cure or similar private purposes, unless it lasts more than a year.
| At a glance | Germany |
|---|---|
| The day test | a connected stay of more than six months |
| From | the first day of that stay |
| A break | brief interruptions aren’t counted against it |
| Without the days | a home you keep and use makes you resident too |
Six months, not 183 days
Germany has no 183-day rule for residence. The test is a stay of more than six months — counted in months, not days, and as one connected stay rather than days added up over a year. In a year without 29 February, six months from 1 February run to 31 July: 181 days.
The law doesn’t say how long a “brief” interruption may be, and with a home in Germany the days don’t matter at all.
Worked example
You arrive on 1 March and stay. Once you’re still there on 1 September, the stay has lasted more than six months — and Germany is your habitual abode from 1 March, so your income is taxable there from that day.
Switzerland counts a stay too, from 30 or 90 days: see Switzerland tax residency. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein have the same six months: see Luxembourg tax residency and Liechtenstein tax residency. Other countries, side by side: 183-day rule by country.
How FlySee counts it
FlySee has no Germany tracker, and there’s no calculator here: the law counts a connected stay of more than six months, brief interruptions aside, without saying how long a break may be. FlySee’s Log records every day you’re in Germany and when you left, and its export lists them — the record of how long you stayed.