Travel days for the foreign-employment exemption

The fast answer: to qualify for the section 10(1)(o)(ii) foreign employment income exemption you must spend more than 183 full days outside South Africa in any 12-month period, including a continuous stretch of more than 60 full days, and your departure and return days both count as days IN South Africa. Both thresholds are strict: exactly 183 days fails, exactly 60 continuous days fails. The calculator below is a day-by-day calendar. Add your trips, adjust any single day, and it counts the full days for you, runs both tests over every possible 12-month window, and tells you whether you qualify and why. Nothing is saved and no sign-up is needed.

Open the travel days calculator →

How the two day tests work

The exemption asks two questions of your travel, and both must pass inside the same 12-month period:

1. The 183-day test. You must be outside South Africa for more than 183 full days during a 12-month period in which you render services abroad for your employer. All full days outside SA count toward the 183, including weekends and leave taken abroad.
2. The 60-day test. Within that same 12-month period there must be a continuous period of more than 60 full days outside South Africa. Four separate 60-day stints fail this test even though they clear 183 in total; one unbroken 61-day stretch passes it.

The 12-month period is any 12-month period, not the tax year. It can start on any day, and it can straddle two tax years or even sit mostly in the previous one. The calculator does not make you choose a window: it checks every possible 12-month period your travel touches and uses whichever windows qualify, which is exactly the taxpayer-favourable reading SARS applies.

What counts as a full day outside South Africa

This is where most hand counts go wrong, so the calendar applies the conventions for you:

• Departure and return days count as days in South Africa. A "full day" means a complete 24-hour day outside the country, so the day you fly out and the day you land back are both SA days. Only the days strictly between them count as outside.
• Weekends, public holidays and leave abroad count. The 183-day and 60-day tests count days of absence, not days of work. A holiday taken abroad during your posting counts toward both tests.
• Workdays matter separately. Once you qualify, the exempt amount is apportioned on workdays: your foreign workdays inside a qualifying 12-month period against your total workdays for the same pay period (the calculator's summary uses the tax year). The calculator tracks worked and non-worked days in and out of SA separately so both layers stay right, and its worksheet shows each tally.

The South African tax year runs from 1 March to the end of February, and the calendar is laid out on that year, but the qualification tests themselves ignore those boundaries.

Worked example (count the days)

An employee departs South Africa on 1 June 2025 for a project abroad and returns on 15 December 2025, with no trips home in between. The departure and return days count as SA days, so the days outside run from 2 June to 14 December: 196 full days, all in one continuous stretch.

• 183-day test: 196 days outside SA in the 12-month window. More than 183. Pass.
• 60-day test: the whole absence is one continuous run of 196 days. More than 60. Pass.

Both tests pass, so the day requirements for the exemption are met and up to the first R1.25 million of the qualifying foreign salary can be exempt.

Now move the return flight to 2 December 2025. The days outside become exactly 183, and the test needs more than 183, so the very same posting fails. Coming home one day later, on 3 December, gives 184 days and passes again. One flight, one day, and the whole exemption turns on it: that is why counting on the actual calendar beats estimating.