# Arizona Tax Residence Tax residency rule, United States. Page: https://usecountr.com/trackers/tax-us-az-presumption/ ## Summary Arizona presumes that you are a resident for income tax if you spend more than nine months of the tax year in the state in total. You can overcome the presumption with competent evidence that you are in Arizona for a temporary or transitory purpose. Fewer days do not make you safe: anyone who is in Arizona for other than a temporary purpose is a resident. The law gives no number of days, so Countr uses 273. A resident is taxed on income from everywhere. The Arizona Department of Revenue applies the rule. - Limit: More than nine months. Countr counts this as 273 days - Period: The tax year, for most people 1 January to 31 December - A day counts when: Not defined in the statute. Countr counts any part of a day - Home needed: No. Time in the state alone starts the presumption - Law: Arizona Revised Statutes, A.R.S. 43-104 - Run by: Arizona Department of Revenue ## Who it applies to - Winter visitors whose stays in Arizona grow longer each year. - Remote workers who settle in Arizona while their employer and legal home are in another state. - Retired people who keep a house in a northern state but live in Arizona for most of the year. - People from Arizona who work away for a time and wonder whether they are still residents. ## The rule Section 43-104 of the Arizona Revised Statutes says that 'resident' includes three groups. Group (a) is every individual who is in Arizona for other than a temporary or transitory purpose. Group (b) is every individual who is domiciled in Arizona and who is outside the state for a temporary or transitory purpose. The statute adds that a resident continues to be a resident even though temporarily absent from the state. Group (c) is the day rule: every individual who spends in the aggregate more than nine months of the taxable year within Arizona shall be presumed to be a resident. The presumption may be overcome by competent evidence that the individual is in the state for a temporary or transitory purpose. A nonresident is every individual other than a resident. The Department of Revenue explains its approach in Individual Income Tax Procedure ITP 92-1. It notes that the statutes do not define 'temporary' or 'transitory'. Domicile is generally the place where a person has a true, fixed, permanent home and to which the person intends to return. Once established, a domicile is presumed to continue until a change is shown, and the person who claims the change must prove it. A person may be domiciled in another state and still be an Arizona resident for income tax. The procedure lists actions the Department considers: where you, your spouse and your children are physically present, where your car is registered, where you hold a driving licence, where your bank accounts and business connections are, whether you bought a home or sold an old one, where you pay property taxes and state income taxes, where you are registered to vote, and which address you use on your records. It ends with the point that no general rule answers the question and no single factor controls. The statute does not say how many days nine months is and does not say how a part of a day is counted. Why it exists: Arizona receives very many long-stay visitors and new arrivals from other states. It taxes residents on all their income, so it must separate real visitors from people who have in fact come to live. The purpose test does this but needs evidence. The nine-month presumption covers the clearest cases: a person who is in Arizona for more than three quarters of the year is treated as living there unless that person shows otherwise. ## Counting the days You add together all the time you spent in Arizona during the tax year and ask whether it is more than nine months. Because the statute gives no number of days, a careful count uses the shortest nine calendar months. 1. Take the tax year. For most people this is 1 January to 31 December. A winter stay crosses two tax years, so count each year alone. 2. Mark every calendar day on which you were in Arizona, including arrival and departure days. 3. Add the days of all stays in that year. They do not need to be in a row. 4. Compare with 273 days, which is February to October in a normal year. Above that, treat the presumption as started. 5. If you are over, collect competent evidence of a temporary purpose and of your ties to another state. 6. If you are under, still ask the main question: are you in Arizona for other than a temporary or transitory purpose? How Countr counts it: Countr counts every calendar day on which your phone records you in Arizona, from 1 January to 31 December. Any part of a day counts as a full day. Nine months is counted as 273 days, the shortest nine months, so the card warns early, never late. Countr starts to warn you 14 days before the limit. It counts days when you only passed through in the same way as other days. The app shows only the day count. It cannot judge the purpose of your stay or where your domicile is, and you can be a resident with fewer days if Arizona is where you really live. ## Examples ### Seven months in Mesa each winter Arne and Liv are retired and domiciled in North Dakota, where they own their farm house. They spend 1 October to 30 April in a rented park home in Mesa. In the tax year 2026 this gives 120 days from January to April and 92 days from October to December, 212 days in total. They are under nine months, so there is no presumption. Their home, voting, licences and doctors are all in North Dakota, and they come for the season, so their purpose is temporary and they are nonresidents. ### A remote worker in Tucson Kim works remotely for a company in Illinois. She ends her lease in Chicago, arrives in Tucson on 15 January 2026 and rents a house. She is still there on 30 November when she flies to see family for December. That is 17 days in January and 303 days from February to November, 320 days in total. She has spent more than nine months of the year in Arizona and is presumed to be a resident. With no home elsewhere and no end date for her stay, she has no evidence of a temporary purpose. ### An Arizonan away for ten months Diego has lived in Phoenix for 20 years. From 1 February to 30 November 2026 his employer sends him to a project in Germany, and he is in Arizona for only 62 days that year. He keeps his Phoenix house, and his family stays there. He is domiciled in Arizona and is outside the state for a temporary purpose, so under group (b) of the statute he is still an Arizona resident for all of 2026, with very few days. ## Exceptions - The presumption can be overcome by competent evidence that you are in Arizona for a temporary or transitory purpose. - A person who is in Arizona for fewer than nine months is not presumed to be a resident, but is still a resident if he or she is in the state for other than a temporary or transitory purpose. - A person domiciled in Arizona stays a resident during a temporary absence, however long the absence is in that year. - A new domicile needs both an intention to make a new home and actions that show it. Intention alone is not enough, and the person who claims the change must prove it. - Federal law protects members of the armed forces: a service member does not become a resident of a state only because military orders station him or her there. - A person who moves into or out of Arizona during the year is a part-year resident and is taxed as a resident for the part of the year when Arizona was home. ## Common misconceptions - "Arizona has a 183-day rule." The Arizona statute has no 183-day test. Its only time rule is the presumption of residence after more than nine months of the taxable year. - "If I leave before nine months, I am a nonresident." The first test in the statute is purpose. A person who moves to Arizona to stay is a resident from arrival, even with a few weeks in the state that year. - "After nine months I am a resident and cannot argue." It is a presumption. The statute lets you overcome it with competent evidence that your presence is for a temporary or transitory purpose. - "I kept my old driving licence, so I am still a resident of my old state only." A licence is one of nine kinds of action the Department lists. The Department says no single factor controls and all the facts are considered. ## Questions and answers ### How many days is nine months in Arizona? The statute does not say. Inside one calendar year, nine calendar months have between 273 and 275 days. A careful person treats 273 days as the line, and Countr uses that number. ### Do winter visitors become Arizona residents? Not by coming for the season. A person who keeps a home and domicile in another state and comes to Arizona for the winter is here for a temporary purpose. The risk grows when stays become longer and ties such as voting, licences and the main home move to Arizona. ### Does the day I arrive in Arizona count? The statute does not define how part days are counted. A careful count includes the arrival day and the departure day, and Countr counts any part of a day as a day. ### What is competent evidence of a temporary purpose? The statute does not list it. Under the Department's procedure, useful facts are the ones that show where your life is based: your family, home, vehicle registration, licence, bank accounts, taxes paid and voter registration in another state, and a clear reason and end date for your time in Arizona. ### What happens if Arizona treats me as a resident? Arizona taxes a resident on taxable income wherever it comes from. A nonresident is taxed only on income from activity or sources in Arizona. Your other state may tax you too, and a credit for tax paid to another state can reduce double tax. ### Can I be domiciled in another state and still be an Arizona resident? Yes. The Department's procedure says that a person may be domiciled in another state but be a resident of Arizona for income tax purposes. This happens when you are in Arizona for other than a temporary or transitory purpose. ## Sources - [Arizona Revised Statutes, section 43-104, Definitions (resident, nonresident)](https://www.azleg.gov/ars/43/00104.htm) - [Arizona Department of Revenue, Individual Income Tax Procedure ITP 92-1, Procedure for Determining Residency Status](https://azdor.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/PROCEDURES_INDIV_1992_itp92-1.pdf) --- 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