Five countries · residence
Am I non-resident for tax? The tests in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK
Each country decides with its own test: 183 days, a home, your family, your work or your income. The five tests side by side, and what happens when two countries both claim you.
Updated · Yann Lephay
Direct answer
Our reading: "non-resident" is never a status on its own; it is a verdict of one country's test, and you are almost always resident somewhere. Each of these countries makes you resident if you meet just one of its criteria: 183 days in Spain or Italy, a home you keep in Germany, your household in France, or the UK's day-count tests. Owning a property is rarely enough by itself, but a home available to you can be. If two countries both treat you as resident, the tax treaty decides in a fixed order: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality.
Domestic residence tests for individuals (checked 28 October 2026)
| Country | You are resident if any one of these applies | Year counted | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | Your household (foyer) is in France, or failing a household your main place of stay; or you work in France other than incidentally; or your centre of economic interests is in France (French-source income above foreign-source income) | Calendar year | impots.gouv.fr, Résident de France (CGI art. 4 B) |
| Germany | You have a home (Wohnsitz) you keep and use; or your habitual abode, always the case after more than six months of continuous stay (not for private visits of up to a year) | Calendar year | §§ 8 and 9 Abgabenordnung |
| Spain | More than 183 days in Spain in the calendar year (sporadic absences count unless you prove residence elsewhere); or Spain is the main centre of your activities or economic interests; presumed if your spouse and minor children live in Spain | Calendar year | Ley del IRPF, art. 9 |
| Italy | For most of the year (183 days, 184 in a leap year): civil residence, domicile (where your personal and family relationships mainly develop), physical presence (any part of a day counts), or registration in the resident register, now a rebuttable presumption | Calendar year | TUIR art. 2 as amended from 2024; Agenzia delle Entrate circular 20/E of 4 November 2024 |
| United Kingdom | Statutory Residence Test: resident if you meet an automatic UK test (183 days or more in the UK; your only home in the UK for 91 days or more in a row and you stayed in it at least 30 days of the tax year; full-time UK work for any 365-day period touching the year) or the sufficient ties test, and no automatic overseas test (fewer than 16 UK days, or 46 if not resident in the previous three years; or full-time work abroad averaging 35 hours a week with fewer than 91 UK days, no more than 30 of them working) | 6 April to 5 April | GOV.UK, Tax on foreign income: UK residence and tax |
Who this page is for
For: people who own or let a property in one of these five countries and want to know whether that country treats them as resident or non-resident. Not for: companies, students and diplomats with special rules, and anyone already in a residence dispute with a tax office.
Example: a retired couple between the UK and Spain
Our illustration. A couple spend 150 days a year in their flat in Alicante and the rest in their house in Kent. Spain: not more than 183 days, and their income comes from UK pensions, so on these facts they are non-resident in Spain and file Modelo 210 there. UK: they keep their only UK home and spend well over 183 days there, so they are UK resident and taxed on their worldwide income, including the Spanish flat. Change one fact (selling the Kent house, moving their savings to Spain) and both answers can change.
When two countries both claim you
Each country applies its own test, so you can be resident in two at once. Tax treaties based on the OECD model settle it in a fixed order: the country where you have a permanent home; if you have one in both, the one where your centre of vital interests is; if that cannot be determined, or you have a permanent home in neither, the one where you have your habitual abode; then nationality. Ask each tax office for a certificate of residence when you need to prove it.
Why it matters for property owners
A resident is usually taxed on worldwide income; a non-resident only on income from that country, often at different rates and with fewer allowances. Your status therefore decides which return you file for your rent and which country gives a credit for the other's tax.
Hard stop
Stop if you moved during the year, have homes in two countries, work across a border, or have received a letter questioning your residence. Split years, treaty tie-breakers and audits need a professional in each country.
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