South Africa tax residency: the physical presence test
You’re a South African tax resident if you’re ordinarily resident there, or meet the physical presence test: more than 91 days in South Africa this tax year and in each of the five tax years before, and more than 915 days in total over those five. Tax years run from 1 March.
South Africa physical presence test calculator
Count every day you were in South Africa for any part of it, in each tax year from 1 March. Leave out days in transit when you didn’t pass through a port of entry.
South Africa tax residency: two ways to be resident
You’re a South African resident for income tax if you’re ordinarily resident in South Africa — a question of fact, which SARS says isn’t clearly defined — or, if you aren’t, you meet the physical presence test. A resident is taxed on worldwide income; a non-resident, on income from a South African source. Under a tax treaty, someone deemed exclusively resident in another country isn’t a South African resident.
The physical presence test needs all three counts, in tax years that run from 1 March to the end of February:
| Count | Days in South Africa |
|---|---|
| This tax year | more than 91 |
| Each of the five tax years before | more than 91 in every one |
| The five tax years before, together | more than 915 |
You’re resident from 1 March of the tax year in which all three are met.
How the days are counted
- A part of a day is a day, so the day you arrive and the day you leave both count.
- Transit doesn’t count: a day passing through between two places outside South Africa, without entering through a port of entry.
- Leaving: resident under the test, you stop being one after 330 full days in a row outside South Africa — from the day you left. An ordinarily resident person who means to return stays resident however long they’re away.
The 183-day rule: foreign employment income
The “183 days” in South Africa is an exemption, not a residence test. A resident employee who works outside South Africa for more than 183 full days in any 12 months, with more than 60 full days in a row, pays no South African tax on the first R1.25 million of that foreign employment income. Public-sector pay doesn’t qualify.
Worked example
SARS’s own: someone not ordinarily resident spent 95, 110, 115, 92 and 151 days in the five tax years before, and 355 in the year being tested. Every year is over 91 — but 563 in the five years isn’t over 915, so the test isn’t met. Had the five years held 975 days, as in SARS’s next example, they’d be resident from 1 March.
Australia counts more than half its income year instead: Australia’s 183-day test. Other countries, side by side: 183-day rule by country.
How FlySee counts it
FlySee has no South Africa tracker. The calculator takes your days in South Africa in each of six tax years and checks the three counts. SARS counts the day you arrive and the day you leave, so FlySee’s Log, which counts any part of a day, gives the same days; transit without passing through a port of entry is for you to leave out.