The 183-Day Rule Is Only for EEA Citizens: a Third-Country National on a Residence Permit Is Judged on Where Their Home Is, and One With Settled Status Is Resident From the First Day

Answer

The general rule applies to you

No exception is recorded for citizens of Saint Lucia on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.

172 exceptions recorded across 63 countries · none match Saint Lucia to Hungary · When you become a tax resident

Section 3 point 2 of Act CXVII of 1995 defines a resident individual in four limbs and only one of them counts days. A Hungarian citizen is resident by nationality, unless they are simultaneously a citizen of another state and have no registered Hungarian home or place of stay. An EEA citizen is resident where they exercise the right of free movement and residence beyond three months in Hungary for at least 183 days of the calendar year, counting the days of arrival and departure as whole days - this is the 183-day rule, and it applies to nobody else. A third-country national holding long-term residence entitlement under the 2023 Act, and a stateless person, are resident with no day count at all; point 3 carves out only the minor child under section 83(1)(e) who spends fewer than 183 days in any twelve months. Everybody else - which means every third-country national on an ordinary residence permit, however long they stay - falls to the fourth limb, a sequence that asks whether their only permanent home is in Hungary, then where their centre of vital interests is, then where their habitual abode is. The Act defines both terms in the same sentence: the centre of vital interests is the state to which the closest personal, family and economic ties bind the individual, and a permanent home is one where the individual has settled for lasting occupation and actually lives, and it does not change because they stay abroad for a longer period on a temporary basis.

Verified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-10

At a glance

Who the 183-day rule applies to: EEA citizens exercising free movement, and nobody else
Section 3 point 2(b) of Act CXVII of 1995, counting the days of departure and arrival as whole days.
Third-country national with settled status: Resident, with no day count
Section 3 point 2(c) of Act CXVII of 1995, covering a person with long-term residence entitlement under Act XC of 2023 and a stateless person.
The one exception to that: The minor child under section 83(1)(e) who spends under 183 days in any 12 months
Section 3 point 3 of Act CXVII of 1995, which puts that person back among non-residents.
Third-country national on an ordinary residence permit: Decided by permanent home, centre of vital interests, then habitual abode
Section 3 point 2(d) of Act CXVII of 1995. There is no day count anywhere in that limb.
Centre of vital interests: The state to which the closest personal, family and economic ties bind you
The closing words of section 3 point 2 of Act CXVII of 1995.
What residence costs you: Tax on all income; a non-resident is taxed only on income whose source is domestic
Section 2(4) of Act CXVII of 1995, which calls the first full tax liability.

Requirements

Hungarian citizenship makes you resident unless you are a dual national with no registered Hungarian address
For an EEA citizen, 183 days in the calendar year while exercising free movement beyond three months
For anyone else without settled status, the permanent home, then the centre of vital interests, then the habitual abode

Country-level policy

Hungarian Law Puts the Authentic Text and the Consolidated Text in Two Different Places and Forbids Either From Being the Other

Section 25(1) of Act CXXX of 2010 makes Magyar Kozlony the official journal of Hungary, published as an electronic document on the government portal, and provides that its text shall be regarded as authentic. Section 25(2) then provides that a consolidated text - a text of a statute incorporating its amended and repealed provisions - may not be published in Magyar Kozlony at all. The consolidated text lives instead in the Nemzeti Jogszabalytar, which section 29(1) of the same Act describes as an electronic collection of legislation operating as an electronic public service, free to anyone, providing a surface for publishing both the promulgated texts and the consolidated texts by time-state. Nothing in either instrument calls it authentic. Government Decree No 338/2011. (XII. 29.) fills in the obligations: section 2(1) requires every statute in force to be published there in consolidated form with its past time-states back to 1 January 2010 and its next three; section 2(3) requires publication within three working days of promulgation. So the consolidation is a legal duty discharged on a statutory deadline by the state's own publisher, and it is still not the authentic text, because section 25(1) reserves that word for a journal that section 25(2) forbids from carrying a consolidation. The decree also carries a smaller discrepancy worth knowing: section 8(1) says the database operates on the www.njt.hu website, and the site that answers today is njt.jog.gov.hu.

What applies to you

Nothing changes for a citizen of Saint Lucia

We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verified1995. évi CXVII. törvény a személyi jövedelemadóról · 3. § 2. pont · consolidated to 2026-10-01

«2.22 _Belföldi illetőségű magánszemély:_ a) a magyar állampolgár (kivéve, ha egyidejűleg más államnak is állampolgára, és belföldön nem rendelkezik a polgárok személyi adatainak és lakcímének nyilvántartásáról szóló törvényben meghatározott lakóhellyel vagy tartózkodási hellyel); b) az a természetes személy, aki a szabad mozgás és tartózkodás jogával rendelkező személyek beutazásáról és tartózkodásáról szóló törvényben meghatározottak szerint a szabad mozgáshoz és a három hónapot meghaladó tartózkodáshoz való jogát az adott naptári évben – a ki- és beutazás napját is egész napnak tekintve – legalább 183 napig Magyarország területén gyakorolja; c)23 [a harmadik országbeli állampolgárok beutazására és tartózkodására vonatkozó általános szabályokról](https://njt.jog.gov.hu/jogszabaly/2023-90-00-00) szóló törvény hatálya alá tartozó huzamos tartózkodási jogosultsággal rendelkező, illetve hontalan személy; továbbá d) az a)–c) pontban nem említett természetes személy, akinek _da)_ kizárólag belföldön van állandó lakóhelye; _db)_ létérdekei központja belföld, ha egyáltalán nem vagy nem csak belföldön rendelkezik állandó lakóhellyel; _dc)_ szokásos tartózkodási helye belföldön található, ha egyáltalán nem vagy nem csak belföldön rendelkezik állandó lakóhellyel, és létérdekei központja sem állapítható meg; azzal, hogy a létérdekek központja az az állam, amelyhez a magánszemélyt a legszorosabb személyes, családi és gazdasági kapcsolatok fűzik, továbbá az állandó lakóhely az olyan lakóhely, ahol a magánszemély tartós ottlakásra rendezkedett be és ténylegesen ott lakik. Nem változik az állandó lakóhely, ha a magánszemély ideiglenes jelleggel huzamosabb ideig külföldön tartózkodik.»

Our translation - not official

2. Resident individual: a) a Hungarian citizen (except where they are simultaneously a citizen of another state as well and have no home or place of stay in Hungary as defined in the Act on the register of citizens' personal data and addresses); b) a natural person who, as laid down in the Act on the entry and residence of persons with the right of free movement and residence, exercises their right of free movement and of residence exceeding three months in the territory of Hungary for at least 183 days in the given calendar year, counting the days of departure and arrival as whole days; c) a person holding long-term residence entitlement, or a stateless person, falling under the Act on the general rules of the entry and residence of third-country nationals; and further d) a natural person not mentioned in points a) to c) who da) has a permanent home exclusively in Hungary; db) whose centre of vital interests is Hungary, where they have no permanent home at all or not only in Hungary; dc) whose habitual abode is in Hungary, where they have no permanent home at all or not only in Hungary and whose centre of vital interests cannot be established either; with the proviso that the centre of vital interests is the state to which the individual is bound by the closest personal, family and economic ties, and further that a permanent home is a home where the individual has settled for lasting occupation and actually lives there. The permanent home does not change where the individual stays abroad for a longer period on a temporary basis.

Known to be out of date. The National Legislation Database dates this time-state 2026. 10. 01. - 2026. 12. 31., so the text changes on 1 January 2027, which is also when a Hungarian tax year begins. The amending instrument was not read.

Four limbs and one of them counts days. Which limb a person falls into is decided by their nationality and their immigration status, not by their behaviour.

Read it at the source

About this source

The Hungarian state's own electronic collection of legislation, operated for the Minister of Justice by Magyar Kozlony Lap- es Konyvkiado Kft. under a public service contract, and the only place a consolidated Hungarian statute is published at all. Section 29(1) of Act CXXX of 2010 defines it; Government Decree No 338/2011. (XII. 29.) sets the duties. Section 2(1) of the decree requires every statute in force to appear in consolidated form with all of its past time-states back to 1 January 2010 and its next three; section 2(3) requires the consolidation within three working days of promulgation. **Read the host carefully: section 8(1) of the decree still names www.njt.hu and the service that answers is njt.jog.gov.hu.** The address shape is njt.jog.gov.hu/jogszabaly/{YEAR}-{NUMBER}-00-00 for an Act, using the Act's Roman numeral converted to Arabic - Act XC of 2023 is 2023-90-00-00, Act LV of 1993 is 1993-55-00-00, Act CXVII of 1995 is 1995-117-00-00 - and njt.jog.gov.hu/jogszabaly/{YEAR}-{NUMBER}-20-22 for a government decree, so Government Decree No 35/2024. (II. 29.) is 2024-35-20-22. The decisive thing on every page is the line under the title: Hatalyos: 2026. 10. 01. - 2026. 12. 31. By the definition of a time-state in section 1 of the decree, the closing date is the day before the text changes, so a page with a closing date is telling the reader that the law will be different on the day after it, and Nem ismert means no change is yet scheduled. Footnotes at the foot of the text name, for every amended paragraph, the Act or decree that put the current words there, which is the only machine-readable amendment history in the corpus.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing published here is the authentic text and Hungarian law says so in terms.** Section 25(1) of Act CXXX of 2010 confers authenticity on the Magyar Kozlony and section 25(2) forbids a consolidated text from being published in the Magyar Kozlony at all, so the authentic text and the current text are in two different places by design and the consolidation is never the authentic one. Neither Act CXXX of 2010 nor Government Decree No 338/2011. (XII. 29.) uses the word hiteles of this database anywhere. The practical limitation that follows is narrower than it sounds and bites hard in one place: **an amending provision disappears from here once it has done its work.** Section 12(2) of Act CXXX of 2010 makes an amending provision lose force the day after it takes effect, and the consolidated text of the amending Act then prints only a footnote saying so, stripping the subtitle headings with it. Act XC of 2023 as served here therefore contains neither section 350 nor section 351, the two provisions that repealed the statute it replaced; Act LXXXIV of 2024 as served here contains neither section 135, which removed the 500,000 EUR property option from the guest investor programme, nor the subtitle that would say which commencement date applied to it. **For what was enacted, and for when, read the Magyar Kozlony issue.** It also cannot be cited for anything kept outside the statute book, and the 2023 immigration Act pushes a great deal out there: the government decree naming which nationalities may hold a guest worker permit or a National Card, the ministerial communication fixing the annual permit number under sections 28(4) and 30(4), the communication listing excluded occupations, the communication fixing the EU Blue Card salary under section 48(7) of Government Decree No 35/2024. (II. 29.), and the registers of preferential employers and qualified temporary-work agencies. Nor is it the place to read a figure a statute re-indexes: section 25(3) of Act CXXX of 2019 prints a health service contribution of 7,710 forints set in 2020 and in the same breath provides that the rate in force is published each year by the National Tax and Customs Administration on its own website.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verified1995. évi CXVII. törvény a személyi jövedelemadóról · 2. § (4) · consolidated to 2026-10-01

«A belföldi illetőségű magánszemély adókötelezettsége összes bevételére kiterjed (teljes körű adókötelezettség).»

Our translation - not official

The tax liability of a resident individual extends to all of their revenue (full tax liability).

What is at stake in the definition.

Read it at the source

About this source

Standing: Maintains the text in force

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Practical notes

The Act is a domestic test and a double taxation treaty can displace it. Nothing in this record reads any treaty.

Section 3 point 2(c) refers to long-term residence entitlement in the sense of Act XC of 2023, which is the national residence card, the EU residence card, the temporary residence card and the pre-2024 settlement permits listed in its section 74(1), not an ordinary residence permit.

The National Legislation Database dates this time-state 2026. 10. 01. to 2026. 12. 31., so the text changes on 1 January 2027, which is also the start of a Hungarian tax year. The amending instrument was not read.

Sources1 · all accessed 2026-10-10

consolidates
1995. évi CXVII. törvény a személyi jövedelemadóról
Nemzeti Jogszabalytar, Igazsagugyi Miniszterium · consolidated to 2026-10-01
Known to be out of date. The National Legislation Database dates this time-state 2026. 10. 01. - 2026. 12. 31., so the text changes on 1 January 2027, which is also when a Hungarian tax year begins. The amending instrument was not read.
About this source
The Hungarian state's own electronic collection of legislation, operated for the Minister of Justice by Magyar Kozlony Lap- es Konyvkiado Kft. under a public service contract, and the only place a consolidated Hungarian statute is published at all. Section 29(1) of Act CXXX of 2010 defines it; Government Decree No 338/2011. (XII. 29.) sets the duties. Section 2(1) of the decree requires every statute in force to appear in consolidated form with all of its past time-states back to 1 January 2010 and its next three; section 2(3) requires the consolidation within three working days of promulgation. **Read the host carefully: section 8(1) of the decree still names www.njt.hu and the service that answers is njt.jog.gov.hu.** The address shape is njt.jog.gov.hu/jogszabaly/{YEAR}-{NUMBER}-00-00 for an Act, using the Act's Roman numeral converted to Arabic - Act XC of 2023 is 2023-90-00-00, Act LV of 1993 is 1993-55-00-00, Act CXVII of 1995 is 1995-117-00-00 - and njt.jog.gov.hu/jogszabaly/{YEAR}-{NUMBER}-20-22 for a government decree, so Government Decree No 35/2024. (II. 29.) is 2024-35-20-22. The decisive thing on every page is the line under the title: Hatalyos: 2026. 10. 01. - 2026. 12. 31. By the definition of a time-state in section 1 of the decree, the closing date is the day before the text changes, so a page with a closing date is telling the reader that the law will be different on the day after it, and Nem ismert means no change is yet scheduled. Footnotes at the foot of the text name, for every amended paragraph, the Act or decree that put the current words there, which is the only machine-readable amendment history in the corpus.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **Nothing published here is the authentic text and Hungarian law says so in terms.** Section 25(1) of Act CXXX of 2010 confers authenticity on the Magyar Kozlony and section 25(2) forbids a consolidated text from being published in the Magyar Kozlony at all, so the authentic text and the current text are in two different places by design and the consolidation is never the authentic one. Neither Act CXXX of 2010 nor Government Decree No 338/2011. (XII. 29.) uses the word hiteles of this database anywhere. The practical limitation that follows is narrower than it sounds and bites hard in one place: **an amending provision disappears from here once it has done its work.** Section 12(2) of Act CXXX of 2010 makes an amending provision lose force the day after it takes effect, and the consolidated text of the amending Act then prints only a footnote saying so, stripping the subtitle headings with it. Act XC of 2023 as served here therefore contains neither section 350 nor section 351, the two provisions that repealed the statute it replaced; Act LXXXIV of 2024 as served here contains neither section 135, which removed the 500,000 EUR property option from the guest investor programme, nor the subtitle that would say which commencement date applied to it. **For what was enacted, and for when, read the Magyar Kozlony issue.** It also cannot be cited for anything kept outside the statute book, and the 2023 immigration Act pushes a great deal out there: the government decree naming which nationalities may hold a guest worker permit or a National Card, the ministerial communication fixing the annual permit number under sections 28(4) and 30(4), the communication listing excluded occupations, the communication fixing the EU Blue Card salary under section 48(7) of Government Decree No 35/2024. (II. 29.), and the registers of preferential employers and qualified temporary-work agencies. Nor is it the place to read a figure a statute re-indexes: section 25(3) of Act CXXX of 2019 prints a health service contribution of 7,710 forints set in 2020 and in the same breath provides that the rate in force is published each year by the National Tax and Customs Administration on its own website.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source