# France Tax Residence Tax residency rule, France. Page: https://usecountr.com/trackers/tax-fr/ ## Summary France has no fixed day limit in its law. You are tax resident if your home or your main place of stay is in France, if your main work is in France, or if the centre of your money interests is in France. One of these is enough. The tax authority treats a stay of more than six months in a year as a main place of stay, which most people read as 183 days. A resident pays French tax on income from the whole world. The tax office (DGFiP) decides, and a tax treaty can change the result. - Day line used in practice: More than six months in France in the year, usually read as 183 days - Period: The calendar year, 1 January to 31 December - A day counts when: The law does not say. Countr counts every day with any time in France - Law: General Tax Code (CGI), articles 4 A and 4 B - Official guidance: BOFiP, BOI-IR-CHAMP-10 - Run by: Direction générale des Finances publiques (DGFiP) ## Who it applies to - People who split the year between France and another country and do not have one clear family home. - People who work abroad while their husband, wife or children stay in France. - Remote workers and freelancers who spend long periods in France. - Retired people who own a second home in France and stay for many months. - People who move to France or leave France in the middle of a year. ## The rule Article 4 A of the General Tax Code says that people whose tax home is in France pay French income tax on all their income, French and foreign. People whose tax home is outside France pay only on income from French sources. Article 4 B then lists who has a tax home in France. The three tests are alternatives: you only need to meet one. The first test has two parts: your home (the French word is foyer) or your main place of stay. The official guidance, BOFiP, describes the home as the place where you or your family normally live. If your husband, wife and children live in France, your home is in France even when your job keeps you abroad for most of the year. The main place of stay is used when the home does not settle the question. BOFiP says that, as a general rule, you have your main place of stay in France when you stay there for more than six months in a given year. The text speaks of six months and gives no number of days. In practice six months is read as 183 days. BOFiP also says the six-month rule is not absolute. Following decisions of the Conseil d'État, the highest administrative court, your main place of stay can be in France with fewer days if your time in France is clearly longer than your time in any other single country. The second test is work: you are resident if you have a job or a business in France, unless you can show it is a side activity. The third test is the centre of your economic interests: the place of your main investments, the place where you manage your assets, or the place where most of your income comes from. Article 4 B also treats French state employees posted abroad as resident when they are not taxed on all their income in the other country. A tax treaty comes first. BOFiP (BOI-INT-DG-20-10-10) states that a person who is resident of the other country under a treaty signed by France is not treated as having a tax home in France. Since 16 February 2025 article 4 B says the same in its own text. Treaties use a fixed order of tie-breaker tests: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, then nationality. Why it exists: France wants to tax the whole income of people whose real life is in France, and only French income of everybody else. A pure day count would be easy to plan around: a person could keep a family and a business in France and stay 182 days. So the law looks first at where your home, your work and your money are, and uses the length of stay as one sign among others. ## Counting the days You count the days you are present in France in one calendar year, and you compare them with the days spent in each other country. The law does not define a day, so the safe way is to count every day with any time in France. 1. First ask the questions that come before the day count: is your family home in France, is your main work in France, is most of your income or wealth in France? If one answer is yes, the day count cannot make you non-resident under French law. 2. List every stay in France between 1 January and 31 December, with the arrival date and the departure date. 3. Count the days of each stay, including the arrival day and the departure day, and add them up. 4. Compare the total with six months (183 days). Also write down the days spent in each other country: if France is clearly the country where you stayed longest, the main place of stay can be in France below 183 days. 5. If another country also treats you as resident, read the tax treaty between that country and France and apply its tie-breaker tests in order. How Countr counts it: Countr counts every day on which you were in France for any part of the day, from 1 January to 31 December. Its line is 182 days: the 183rd day is the day you cross it, and the app warns you 14 days before. This is simpler than the law. France has no fixed day limit, so the number is a sign of residence, not the full test. Countr cannot see your home, your job, your income or a tax treaty. Any of those can make you resident with far fewer days, and a treaty can make you non-resident with more. ## Examples ### No fixed home, 186 days in France Lina is single, works for herself and has no family home in any country. In 2026 she is in France from 5 January to 20 March (75 days), from 1 May to 31 July (92 days) and from 10 October to 28 October (19 days). That is 186 days. She spends 100 days in Spain and 79 days in Morocco. Her stay in France is more than six months, so her main place of stay is in France and she is French tax resident for 2026. ### Family in Lyon, 60 days in France Marc works in Dubai all year. His wife and two children live in the family flat in Lyon, and he comes back for 60 days in 2026. His day count is far below six months, but his home is in France because his family normally lives there. Under article 4 B he has a French tax home. The United Arab Emirates treaty with France would then have to be read to see which country may tax which income. ### Moving to France on 1 September Ana and her family move from Brazil to Bordeaux on 1 September 2026. From that day to 31 December she is in France for 122 days, which is less than six months. This does not help her stay non-resident: BOFiP says the six-month rule is not applied to the year of arrival or the year of departure. Her home is in France from 1 September, so she is taxed on her worldwide income from that date, and only on French income before it. ## Exceptions - In the year you arrive in France or leave France, the year is split: you are taxed as a resident only for the part of the year when your tax home is in France. - A person who is resident of another country under a tax treaty with France is not treated as having a French tax home, even when one test of article 4 B is met. - French state employees who work abroad keep a French tax home when the other country does not tax all their income. - A job in France that is only a side activity does not make you resident through the work test. - Stays of clearly more time in France than in any other single country can make France your main place of stay with fewer than 183 days. ## Common misconceptions - "If I stay under 183 days, I am not French tax resident." The day count is only one part of one test. A family home in France, a main job in France or the centre of your economic interests in France each make you resident with any number of days. - "The French tax code says 183 days." Article 4 B does not contain a number of days. The official guidance speaks of a stay of more than six months in a given year, and says this is a general rule, not an absolute one. - "I pay tax in another country, so France cannot treat me as resident." Paying tax elsewhere does not decide French residence. If both countries treat you as resident, the tax treaty between them decides, using its tie-breaker tests. - "My home is where I own a house." The home test looks at where you or your family normally live. A house you own but only use for holidays is not your home in this sense, and a rented flat where your family lives is. ## Questions and answers ### Does the day I arrive in France count? The tax code and the official guidance do not define how to count a day. The safe way is to count both the arrival day and the departure day as days in France. Countr counts any day with some time in France. ### Can I be tax resident in France and in another country in the same year? Yes, under each country's own law this happens often. When France has a tax treaty with the other country, the treaty gives you one country of residence for treaty purposes. Without a treaty, both countries can tax you as a resident. ### What happens if I spend 183 days in France by accident? If you have no clear family home elsewhere, a stay of more than six months points to a main place of stay in France, and France can tax your worldwide income for that year. The tax office looks at your whole situation, and a treaty with your other country may still place your residence there. ### Is the French tax year the calendar year? Yes. French income tax uses the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December, and the six-month guide is applied to that year. ### Do I become resident from the first day of the year or from the day I arrive? From the day your tax home is in France. In the year you move in, you are taxed on worldwide income only from the arrival date. In the year you leave, only up to the departure date. ### Does working remotely from France for a foreign company make me resident? It can. Work that you physically do in France counts as a professional activity in France, and you are resident through that test unless the French work is only a side activity. Long stays also add to your day count. ## Sources - [BOFiP, BOI-IR-CHAMP-10: tax home in France (article 4 B of the General Tax Code)](https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/1911-PGP.html/identifiant=BOI-IR-CHAMP-10-20160728) - [BOFiP, BOI-INT-DG-20-10-10: tax treaties and the notion of residence](https://bofip.impots.gouv.fr/bofip/2427-PGP.html) - [Légifrance, General Tax Code, article 4 B (version in force since 16 February 2025)](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000051202565) --- Countr is an app for iPhone that counts your days in every country for visa, tax and residency rules, from the photos on your phone and your location. It explains rules and counts days. It does not give legal or tax advice. https://apps.apple.com/app/country-days-tracker-countr/id6810720800