The physical presence test for South African tax residency

If you are not ordinarily resident in South Africa, the physical presence test decides whether SARS still treats you as a tax resident based purely on how many days you spend in the country. You become a resident for a year of assessment only if you exceed all three day thresholds set out in the definition of "resident" in section 1 of the Income Tax Act. Residency matters because a South African tax resident is taxed on worldwide income, while a non-resident is taxed only on income from a South African source.

This article is about whether you are a resident at all. It is separate from the foreign-income exemption that can apply once you already are a resident and you go to work abroad. For that, see the guide to the expat foreign-income exemption under section 10(1)(o)(ii).

Two ways to be a resident

The definition of "resident" for a natural person has two limbs, and the first is primary.

The first limb is whether you are ordinarily resident in South Africa. This is a common-law concept. Broadly, it asks where your real home is: the place you would return to after your wanderings. If you are ordinarily resident, you are a resident, and the day count is irrelevant.

The day-count rule, the physical presence test, is only reached if you are not ordinarily resident. So the test is a second route to residency for people whose settled home is elsewhere but who spend a lot of time in the country.

The three day thresholds

You are a resident under the physical presence test for a year of assessment only if you are physically present in South Africa for periods exceeding all three of the following:

• more than 91 days in total in the year of assessment under consideration; and
• more than 91 days in total in each of the five years of assessment preceding it; and
• more than 915 days in total across those five preceding years combined.

All three must be satisfied. Failing any single one means the test is not met for that year. A "day" includes part of a day, so a day of arrival and a day of departure each count.

Read the second threshold carefully. It is not enough that the five prior years add up to a large number. Each one of those five years must individually exceed 91 days, and then the five together must exceed 915 days. The aggregate threshold of 915 is a separate hurdle from the per-year threshold of 91.

A worked example

Take someone who is not ordinarily resident. They are present in South Africa for 120 days in the current year. In the five preceding years they were present for 100, 200, 250, 200 and 180 days.

Check each element in turn.

Current year: 120 days, which is more than 91. Element one passes.

Each of the five preceding years: 100, 200, 250, 200 and 180 are each more than 91. Element two passes.

Aggregate of the five preceding years:

100 + 200 + 250 + 200 + 180 = 930 days

930 is more than 915. Element three passes.

All three thresholds are exceeded, so this person is a South African tax resident for the current year. That has a rand consequence, because their worldwide taxable income is now in the South African net rather than only their local-source income.

What residency costs in rand

Suppose that resident has taxable income, from all sources worldwide, of R500,000 for the 2026 year of assessment. That figure falls in the R370,501 to R512,800 bracket, taxed at R77,362 plus 31% of the amount above R370,500.

R500,000 less R370,500 = R129,500

31% of R129,500 = R40,145

R77,362 + R40,145 = R117,507

Less the primary rebate of R17,235:

R117,507 less R17,235 = R100,272

So the tax before any credits or further deductions is R100,272. Had this person remained a non-resident, only their South African-source income would have been taxable, and foreign salary, foreign interest and foreign rental would have fallen outside the South African base entirely. The day count is what moved the whole worldwide figure into charge.

You can model a cross-border position, including the residency consequence, with the cross-border income calculator.

Leaving and ceasing to be a resident

The test also has an exit. A person who has been a resident under the physical presence test, but who is then physically outside South Africa for a continuous period of at least 330 full days, ceases to be a resident from the day they left the country. The cessation is backdated to the date of departure, not the date the 330 days are completed.

This is the day-count counterpart to the ordinary-residence enquiry. It does not, on its own, deal with the deemed disposal and other consequences that can follow when residency ends, so plan the timing of a departure rather than discovering it after the fact.