When you become a tax resident, country by country

One question, 33answers, each one the country’s own record. The labels below are the ones its own instruments use rather than a vocabulary we imposed on them: where one country’s law has no equivalent of another’s test, the row is simply absent, because an empty cell would invent a comparison nobody made. Every line opens onto the law it rests on.

Countries answered: 33
Exceptions by nationality: 0
Oldest check: 2026-09-20
Newest check: 2026-10-08

Antigua and BarbudaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residency in Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda abolished personal income tax, and the sentence that did it is section 47 of the Unincorporated Business Tax Act 2016: the Personal Income Tax Act 2005 is repealed with effect from 1 July 2016. What the same Act did in the same breath is create a tax on self-employment income that a reader can easily miss - a sole trader pays nothing on the first XCD 21,000 of chargeable business income, eight per cent to XCD 93,000 and twenty-five per cent above that. So an employee resident here pays no income tax and a freelancer resident here pays up to twenty-five per cent on their profits. There is no statutory test of personal tax residence at all, because with no personal income tax there is nothing for one to attach to; the residence concepts that survive are the ordinary residence and domicile tests in the business tax Act and the permanent residence permit's own annual payment to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.

Personal income tax: Repealed with effect from 1 July 2016
Unincorporated Business Tax, sole trader: 0% to XCD 21,000, 8% to XCD 93,000, 25% above
Withholding on payments to a non-resident individual: 25%
Statutory test of personal tax residence: None found
183-day rule: Not found in any instrument we read
Permanent residence annual payment: Prescribed fees, amount not found

ArgentinaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-20

Tax Residency Thresholds and Worldwide-Income Taxation

Argentina taxes its residents on worldwide income, and you become one by staying. A foreigner holding permanent residency is a tax resident from the start; a foreigner on temporary permits becomes one after twelve months of them. Nobody has to opt in, file anything, or be told - the twelve months pass and the status attaches. This is the single most expensive thing to discover late about Argentina.

Trigger for temporary-permit holders: 12 months on temporary authorisations
Trigger for permanent residents: Immediate on obtaining permanent residency
Losing residency: 12 months continuously abroad, or permanent residence elsewhere
When loss takes effect: First day of the month after the triggering event
Separate test for personal deductions: More than 6 months in the fiscal year
Tax authority: ARCAas of 2024-10-25

BarbadosCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residence and Domicile in Barbados

Barbados runs two tests, not one, and almost every secondary account merges them. Residence is a day count or an election: a person is resident in an income year if they spend more than 182 days in Barbados in that year, or if they are ordinarily resident, which the Act defines as having a permanent home here and having told the Commissioner they intend to reside for at least two consecutive income years. Domicile is separate and the Income Tax Act does not define it. The two combine into three positions. Resident and domiciled means worldwide income. Resident but not domiciled means Barbadian income plus foreign income only to the extent a benefit is obtained in Barbados from it - a remittance basis written into section 17. Not resident means Barbadian income only. Getting out of residence is not automatic either: section 85(5)(b) requires the days, the absence of domicile and a written notice to the Commissioner.

Day count for residence: more than 182 days in the aggregate in the income year
Second route into residence: Ordinary residence: a permanent home plus notice of intent to reside for at least two consecutive income years
Resident and domiciled: Taxed on world income
Resident but not domiciled: Barbadian income, plus foreign income to the extent a benefit is obtained in Barbados from it
Non-resident: Income derived from Barbados only
Income year: The calendar year
Rate on the first band: 12.5 percent of every complete dollar of taxable income up to $50 000
Rate above it: 28.5 per cent of every complete dollar of taxable income above $50 000
Welcome Stamp holders: Deemed not resident, by the Remote Employment Act

BelizeCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residence in Belize

Belize does not tax individuals on residence. The Income and Business Tax Act charges tax on chargeable income accruing in or derived from Belize, whether received here or not - a source test, not a residence test. That is why the question most readers arrive with, "how many days make me tax resident", has no clean answer here: the Act contains three different day counts and not one of them decides whether you are taxable. One hundred and eighty-two days earns you the personal deduction. One hundred and eighty-three days makes you a "resident person" for a Part about companies' foreign income. And six months in a basis year is what you must not reach if you want foreign income to stay outside the charge under the temporary residents section. Foreign income of someone who lives here is not taxed because it is foreign, not because of where they live.

Basis of the charge: Source - income accruing in or derived from Belize
Worldwide taxation of individuals: None found in the charging section
Day count for the personal deduction: more than one hundred and eighty-two days within the country in that basis year
Day count in the definition of "resident person": more than 183 days of the year of assessment in Belize
Threshold in the temporary residents exemption: six months in the basis year
Income tax rate, employed person: twenty-five per centum of the chargeable income
Income tax rate, person other than an employed person: twenty-five per centum of the amount of the chargeable income
Employed individual exempt from tax: Total income under BZ$20,000 in the basis year
Corporate income tax: None from the 2020 basis year, except for petroleum operations

BoliviaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

When You Become a Tax Resident

For income tax, Bolivia has no residence test at all. Tax attaches to Bolivian-source income whatever the taxpayer's domicile or residence, and foreign income is simply outside the charge - there is no day count that changes that. One tax does use residence: the tax on large fortunes, where staying more than 183 days in twelve months makes you resident and brings your worldwide wealth into charge. It only bites above thirty million bolivianos, so for most people the practical answer is that moving to Bolivia does not create a residence-based tax liability at all.

Income tax residence test: None - Bolivian-source income is taxed regardless of domicile or residence
Foreign income of someone living in Bolivia: Outside the income tax charge
Residence test for the tax on large fortunes: More than 183 days in a twelve-month period, continuous or broken up
What a resident is charged on: Fortune located in Bolivia and abroad
Threshold: Bs 30,000,000 of net fortune at 31 Decemberas of 2026-09-27
Who is excluded: Companies and every other legal person - the tax is on natural persons only

BrazilSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

When You Become a Tax Resident of Brazil

The number is 184 days, not 183, and it is counted inside a twelve-month period rather than a calendar year. If you fall short of 184 days in a twelve-month period, the count does not simply reset on 1 January: a new twelve-month period starts from your next entry after the one that opened the previous count. Somebody who arrives with a permanent permit is a resident from the day they land. The instrument that says all this is a 2002 revenue instruction written in the language of the old foreigners' statute - it speaks of a permanent visa and a temporary visa, categories the 2017 migration law abolished and replaced with residence authorisations. It has been amended since 2017, but not on that point.

Presence test: 184 days, consecutive or not, within a period of up to twelve months
Window: Twelve months, not a calendar year
If the 184 days are not reached: A fresh twelve-month period runs from the next entry after the one that started the previous count
Arriving on a permanent permit: Resident from the date of arrival
Leaving temporarily: Non-resident from the day after twelve consecutive months of absence
CPF: Compulsory for a non-resident holding a Brazilian bank account

ChileSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Chilean Tax Residency and the Three-Year Window

Chile runs two separate concepts and most planning errors come from collapsing them. Residencia is purely mechanical: 184 days of physical presence inside any rolling 12 months, with no test of intention at all. Domicilio is about where your economic life sits, it can attach from your very first day in the country, and a signed declaration is enough to create it. Both lead to the same place - Chilean tax on worldwide income - but a new arrival gets three years in which only Chilean-source income is taxed, and that clock starts at entry, not at the day residency is acquired.

Day count: More than 183 days - so from day 184
Period: Any rolling 12 consecutive months
Intention: Irrelevant to residency
Resident from: The day the 184th day of presence falls
Losing residency: 184 days of absence within 12 consecutive months
Domicile from: The first day of entry
Declaring domicile: A sworn declaration is sufficient on its own
Foreign income of a new arrival: Untaxed for the first 3 years from entry
Extending that window: Possible, at the Regional Director's discretion
Losing residency vs losing domicile: Different tests, and one does not imply the other

ColombiaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-20

Colombian Tax Residency

For a foreigner the test is a day count and essentially nothing else: more than 183 days, continuous or not, in any rolling 365-day period. The further tests about where your family lives and where your income comes from look alarming but apply only to Colombian nationals. There is one timing quirk worth knowing: if the days straddle two tax years, residency starts from the second one.

Day count: More than 183 days in any rolling 365
Continuous?: No - continuous or discontinuous both count
Entry and exit days: Both counted
Straddling two tax years: Resident from the second year
Family and income tests: Colombian nationals only

Costa RicaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Tax Residence: 183 Days, Counted From the Migration Record

Costa Rica taxes income from Costa Rican sources. Residence therefore decides less than it does in a worldwide system, but it still decides who files, who is withheld from at resident rates and who can claim a treaty. The test for an individual is more than 183 days in the fiscal period, continuous or not, counting the days of entry and exit. Short trips abroad are counted into the 183 unless the taxpayer produces a tax residence certificate from another country, and the regulation draws the line at thirty continuous days: a trip longer than that is not counted at all. The evidence is not self-declared - the regulation says the reference is the migration movement record held by the migration directorate. Two statutes carve people out expressly: remote workers under Ley 10008 are never habitual residents for tax, and investors, rentistas and pensioners under Ley 9996 are not automatically resident.

Test for an individual: More than 183 days in the fiscal period, continuous or not
Are the days of entry and exit counted?: Yes, both
Short absences: Counted into the 183 days unless a foreign tax residence certificate is produced
Absences longer than 30 continuous days: Not counted at all
Evidence used: The migration movement record held by the migration directorate
Scope of the tax: Costa Rican-source income
Remote workers under Ley 10008: Never treated as habitual residents for tax purposes
Investors, rentistas and pensioners under Ley 9996: Not automatically tax resident; the ordinary test still applies

CubaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

When You Become a Cuban Tax Resident

Cuba does not count your days. The personal income tax law divides taxpayers by migration status, not by presence: a foreigner with permanent residence in the national territory is taxed on income whatever country it came from, and a foreigner without it is taxed only on income obtained or generated in Cuba, at a flat fifteen per cent on the gross with no deduction of any kind and no annual return. There is no hundred-and-eighty-three-day rule in the statute, no centre-of-vital-interests test, and no definition of permanent residence in the tax law's own glossary: the term is the migration law's and the tax law borrows it whole. The practical consequence is unusual. Worldwide taxation in Cuba is something you apply for, wait a year for and pay a thousand dollars towards, rather than something that happens to you by staying too long.

Test for worldwide taxation: Permanent residence, not days
Day-count rule: None in the tax law
Non-permanent resident, Cuban-source income: 15 %, no deductions
Permanent resident: Worldwide income, progressive scale
Annual tax-free minimum: CUP 39 120.00
Top rate: 50 % above CUP 50 000.00 of annual taxable income
Return and payment: Before 30 April of the following year
Return required of a non-permanent resident: No
Income from an individual employment contract abroad: 4 % for permanent residents

DominicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residency in Dominica

There are three ways to become tax resident in Dominica and only one of them is the 183-day test everybody quotes. The Income Tax Act's definition catches you if your permanent place of abode is here and you are physically present for any period at all in the year; or if you are present for at least 183 days; or if a shorter presence is continuous with a qualifying presence in the year before or after. Residence brings worldwide income into charge. The Inland Revenue Division's own page states the test as "physically present in Dominica for more than 183 days continuously" - which adds a word the Act does not have and drops the abode limb entirely, and is the kind of difference that decides a case. The rates the Division publishes are not the rates in the consolidated Act either, and we did not find the instrument that changed them.

Day-count test: 183 days in the basis period
Abode test: Permanent place of abode plus any presence at all
Continuity test: A short presence joined to a qualifying one in the adjoining year
What "ordinarily resident" means: Resident under the abode limb only
Scope of charge for a resident: All sources, in or out of Dominica
Resident allowance: EC$30,000, from 1 January 2018as of 2018-01-01
Rates the Inland Revenue Division publishes: Nil to 30,000; 15% to 50,000; 25% to 80,000; 35% above
Company rate the Division publishes: 25 per cent, from 1 January 2016
Exit certificate to leave the country: Required by the Regulations
Filing deadline: 31 March

Dominican RepublicCaribbeanVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-06

Tax Residence: Territorial, With a Limb That Just Got Wider

The Dominican Republic taxes residents on Dominican-source income and on one slice of their foreign income. Until June 2026 that slice was income from investments and financial gains; a law promulgated on 18 June 2026 added income from technical-assistance services to it and then defined technical assistance so broadly that it covers consultancy, software, cloud services, artificial intelligence and data work. Residence itself is a day count: more than 182 days in the fiscal year, continuous or not. And there is a rule about newcomers that is constantly misstated - a person who becomes resident is subject to tax on foreign-source income only from the third tax year counted from the one in which they became resident. That is not three tax-free years and it does not exempt Dominican-source income for a day.

Residence test: More than 182 days in the fiscal year
System: Territorial, plus a foreign-income limb for residents
Foreign income taxed on residents: Investments, financial gains and technical assistanceas of 2026-06-18
Foreign income taxed on residents before that: Investments and financial gainsas of 2012
Newcomer rule: From the third tax year
Non-residents: Taxed on Dominican-source income only
Pension or rentista income declared under Ley 171-07: Exempt
Burden of proof on transfers: On the taxpayer

EcuadorSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

When Ecuador Treats You as a Tax Resident

The day count is 183 days in a tax year, and Ecuador adds a second, less familiar limb: 183 days across twelve months spanning two tax years also makes you resident unless you can show tax residence somewhere else and that your economic centre is there. Beyond the day counts, the law reaches people whose main economic interests are in Ecuador, with a rebuttable presumption triggered by more than USD 1 million of Ecuadorian assets in the hands of someone with a past Ecuadorian connection. Against all that sits a genuine opt-out: a five-year temporary fiscal residence regime that taxes Ecuadorian-source income only, for newcomers who invest USD 150,000 or prove USD 2,500 a month from abroad.

Day count: 183 calendar days in a tax period, consecutive or not, including sporadic absences
Straddling test: 183 days in twelve months across two tax periods
Escape from the straddling test: Prove tax residence elsewhere and that your economic centre is there
Tax haven rule: Residence in Ecuador persists for four further tax periods unless 183 days and the economic centre can be proved in the new jurisdiction
Asset presumption: More than USD 1 million of Ecuadorian assets, for someone with a prior Ecuadorian link
Temporary fiscal residence: 5 years, Ecuadorian-source income onlyas of 2023-12-20
Temporary regime entry ticket: USD 150,000 invested, or USD 2,500 a month of non-Ecuadorian incomeas of 2023-12-20
Window to qualify for the temporary regime: Between day 1 and day 120 after entering Ecuadoras of 2023-12-20
Tax residence certificate: Free, from the SRI

El SalvadorCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Tax Domicile at Two Hundred Days, and a Tax That Stops at the Border

Two things make El Salvador unusual and they work in the same direction. The threshold is two hundred consecutive days in a calendar year rather than the hundred and eighty-three almost everyone else uses, so a stay that would make you resident in Peru, Colombia or Mexico leaves you outside the Salvadoran net - and once you have been domiciled for more than a calendar year you may be away a hundred and sixty-five days without losing the status. And the tax itself is territorial. Article 15 of the income tax law, headed 'Renta mundial', was repealed, and what is left is article 16, which defines Salvadoran-source income by where the property, the activity, the capital and the service are. Becoming tax resident here therefore does not expose foreign income to Salvadoran tax in the way it would in Colombia, Mexico or Brazil. The rate scale for a resident runs from an exempt band up to thirty per cent; a non-domiciled individual pays a flat thirty per cent on Salvadoran-source income.

Day threshold: More than 200 consecutive days in a calendar year
Alternative test: Principal seat of your business in El Salvador
Absence allowed after a year of domicile: 165 days
Basis of taxation: Territorial
Worldwide income article: Repealed
Exempt band: Up to USD 6,600 a year
Top rate for a resident individual: 30 per cent
Rate for a non-domiciled individual: 30 per cent flat
Filing threshold for a salaried person: USD 60,000 a year
Capital gains on bitcoin: Not subject to capital gains tax
Currency: United States dollar

GrenadaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residency in Grenada

Grenada taxes income from sources in Grenada and nothing else. Section 8 of the Income Tax Act gives a resident and a non-resident the same definition of assessable income - amounts accrued from all sources in Grenada - so becoming resident changes which allowances and rates apply and does not bring your foreign income into charge. Residence itself is defined three ways: a permanent place of abode here plus any physical presence in the year, a hundred and eighty-three days, or a presence continuous with a qualifying presence in the year before or after. The rates are not in the Act. The Fifth Schedule as published says thirty per cent, and three Orders made by the Minister under section 128 moved it to a personal allowance of EC$36,000, ten per cent on the next EC$24,000 and twenty-eight per cent above that.

Day count for residence: 183 days
Alternative residence test: Permanent place of abode plus any presence
Foreign income of a resident: Not assessable
Personal allowance: EC$36,000
Lower rate band: 10 per cent on the first EC$24,000 of chargeable income
Upper rate: 28 per cent
Company rate: 28 per cent
Rate printed in the Act: 30 per cent
Retiree exemption: Foreign income of a person not resident before retiring
Pension income: Exempt
Information exchange with the United States: In force since 29 September 2017

GuatemalaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

When Guatemala Taxes You

Guatemala taxes territorially. Income tax reaches income obtained in the national territory, and the law's own catalogue of what counts is a catalogue of Guatemalan-source income - sales here, services between Guatemala and elsewhere, rent from property here, interest paid by residents here. Residence matters for how that income is taxed and for which chapter of the law applies, not for whether foreign income is swept in. The statute defines a tax resident by two tests, and the one we can quote is the centre of economic interests, which can be displaced by a tax-residence certificate from another country's tax authority. Separately from the tax law, holding a temporary residence carries an annual filing obligation of its own: residents have to produce a tax-compliance certificate every year.

Basis of taxation: Territorial - Guatemalan-source income
Income tax instrument: Decreto 10-2012
Categories of income: Business activities, employment, capital and capital gains
Residence test we can quote: Centre of economic interests in Guatemala
How to displace it: A tax-residence certificate from another country's tax authority
Day-count test: Not quotable from our reading
VAT: 12%
Annual obligation of a temporary resident: A tax-compliance certificate

GuyanaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-06

Guyanese Tax Residence: 183 Days, a Worldwide Charge, and a Remittance Basis Underneath It

The Income Tax Act makes you resident on either of two tests: you reside permanently in Guyana or, being in Guyana, intend to, allowing for temporary absences the Commissioner-General finds reasonable; or you reside in Guyana for more than 183 days in the year. The charge in section 5 is worldwide on its face - income accruing in or derived from Guyana or elsewhere, and whether received in Guyana or not - but the proviso at the end of the same section cuts a remittance basis into it: where foreign income is earned income, or belongs to a person who is not ordinarily resident in Guyana or not domiciled there, tax is payable only on what is received in Guyana. Residence and domicile are separate tests from separate statutes, and domicile has its own Act: you acquire a new domicile by being in a country and intending to live there indefinitely. The published Chapter is frozen at 31 December 2012 and still prints a flat rate of thirty-three and one third per cent; the real rates since 1 January 2026 are 25 and 35 per cent.

Day count: More than 183 days in the year
Second limb: Residing permanently, or being in Guyana and intending to reside permanently, allowing for temporary absences the Commissioner-General finds reasonable
Basis of charge: Worldwide, with a remittance basis for foreign earned income and for the not-ordinarily-resident or not-domiciled
Employment income: Gains from an employment exercised in Guyana are derived from Guyana whether received in Guyana or not
Rate printed in the published Chapter: Thirty-three and one third per cent, flat
Rate in force: 25% on chargeable income up to GY$3,360,000 a year, 35% on the balanceas of 2026-01-01
Personal deduction in force: GY$1,680,000 a year, or one third of income from all sources excluding income subject to withholding tax, whichever is greateras of 2026-01-01
Rate the Revenue Authority's own rates page still shows: 28% up to GY$2,400,000 and 40% on the balance, with a GY$1,200,000 allowanceas of 2026-10-06
Company residence: Control and management of the business exercised in Guyana
Domicile: Acquired by being in a country and intending to live there indefinitely

HaitiCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Haitian Tax Residence: Four Tests, Any One of Which Is Enough, and 183 Days Is Only the First

The decree of 29 September 2005 on income tax sets out who is taxed and then, in the next article, who counts as domiciled in Haiti. The list has four limbs and they are alternatives: having your home in Haiti or staying there more than a hundred and eighty-three days in a tax year; carrying on a professional activity in Haiti, employed or not; having the centre of your economic interests in Haiti; or being a Haitian state official posted abroad and not personally taxed there on your worldwide income. Anybody inside any one of them is taxed on their worldwide income; anybody outside all of them is taxed on Haitian-source income only. The second limb matters more than the day count: working in Haiti makes you tax-domiciled there from the first day, with no threshold at all. Separately, a client who uses a service provider domiciled outside Haiti during a temporary stay must withhold twenty per cent and pay it to the revenue directorate within fifteen days, in final discharge of the tax.

Day count test: More than 183 days in a tax year
Activity test: Any professional activity in Haiti, employed or not
Economic interests test: Centre of economic interests in Haiti
Worldwide income: Taxed, for anyone fiscally domiciled in Haiti
Non-residents: Taxed on Haitian-source income
Withholding on a visiting service provider: 20 per cent, in final discharge
Tax year: 1 October to 30 September

HondurasCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Becoming Tax Resident in Honduras

Honduras has no day count. Its income tax law defines a resident as a person who actually lives in the country and is not a mere transient, and it decides doubtful cases on intention rather than arithmetic - it even says that a foreigner whose stay is limited by immigration law is not a resident, unless other circumstances show an intention to stay longer than was originally asked for. Once you are resident the reach is wide: residents and domiciled persons are taxed on income whether its source is inside the country or outside it. Non-residents are taxed only on Honduran-source income, by a flat withholding of ten per cent on thirteen listed kinds of payment. And the rentista and pensioner residence categories carry a statutory exemption on the very income that qualified them.

Day-count test: None
Test used instead: Actually living in the country, and intention
Scope for a resident: Income from inside and outside Honduras
Scope for a non-resident: Honduran-source income only
Non-resident withholding: 10%
Company rate: 25%
Rentista and pensioner income: Exempt
Payment: Four quarterly instalments

JamaicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

When Jamaica taxes you

The charging provision is section 5 of the Income Tax Act and it is worldwide on its face. A person residing in the island is charged on profits or gains from any kind of property whatever, whether situated in the island or elsewhere, and from any trade, business, profession, employment or vocation whether carried on in the island or elsewhere. A person not resident is charged only on Jamaican property and on a trade or employment exercised within the island. That is a residence test doing a great deal of work, and the Act does not define it. Section 2 runs from distribution through emoluments to unit holder and contains no definition of resident, residence or residing; whether a person resides in the island is left as a question of fact. The six-month figure that circulates as Jamaica's tax residence rule is not in the Income Tax Act at all. There is a statutory six-month residence test in Jamaican law, but it is in the National Health Fund Act and it decides who gets drug subsidies.

Basis of taxation for a resident: Worldwide
Basis of taxation for a non-resident: Jamaican source only
Statutory definition of residence for income tax: None
Day-count test: None in the Income Tax Act
Remittance basis: Not found in the readable text of the Act
Annual income tax threshold from 1 April 2026: $1,902,360as of 2026-10-06
Annual income tax threshold from 1 April 2027: $2,003,496
Six-month residence test that does exist in statute: National Health Fund Act, for drug subsidies

MexicoNorth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

When Mexico Treats You as Tax Resident

Mexico does not count days. The test in the Fiscal Code is whether you have established a home in the country, and - if you have a home in another country too - whether your centre of vital interests is in Mexico. Two things decide that: more than half your worldwide income having its source in Mexico in a calendar year, or Mexico being the main place you carry on your professional activities. There is no 183-day rule anywhere in the article, which makes Mexico an outlier among every country in this reference. Residence brings worldwide taxation, and leaving it requires a notice filed fifteen days in advance.

Day-count test: None
Primary test: Having established a home in Mexico
Tie-breaker where you have a home in two countries: Centre of vital interests
Income limb of the tie-breaker: More than 50% of total income in the calendar year sourced in Mexico
Activity limb of the tie-breaker: Mexico being the main place of your professional activities
Scope of taxation for a resident: Worldwide income, whatever the source
Notice before ceasing to be resident: No later than 15 days before the change
If you do not file that notice: You stay resident in Mexico
Moving to a preferential tax regime: Residence continues for the year of the notice and the following five tax years
Mexican nationals: Presumed resident unless they prove otherwise

NicaraguaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residence in Nicaragua

More than a hundred and eighty days in a calendar year makes a natural person tax-resident, and the days need not be continuous. There is a second limb: having your centre of economic interest in the country, which can be rebutted with a tax-residence certificate from elsewhere unless that elsewhere is on the tax-haven list. The test matters less here than in most countries, because Nicaragua taxes territorially - income tax reaches Nicaraguan-source income whether the taxpayer is resident or not, and a resident's foreign income is outside it. Being resident changes the rate rather than the base: a resident pays the progressive scale on work income, where a non-resident pays a flat twenty per cent final withholding. The wording of the day test was substituted in 2014 and now opens with que provengan del exterior, which narrows it to people arriving from abroad.

Days that make a person resident: More than 180 in a calendar year
Continuity: Not required
Second test: Centre of economic interest in the country
Rebutting the second test: A tax-residence certificate from abroad, unless the country is treated as a tax haven
What income tax reaches: Nicaraguan-source income, for residents and non-residents alike
Foreign income of a resident: Outside the income tax
Work income of a non-resident: 20% final withholding
Exempt band of resident work income: C$ 100,000.00 a year
Top rate on resident work income: 30.00%
How presence is checked: A migration-movement certificate from the migration authority

PanamaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Becoming Tax Resident in Panama

Two tests, either of which is enough: more than 183 days in the country in a tax year or in the one immediately before, or a permanent home established in Panama. The second looks like the easier one and the revenue authority has made it the harder one - the Dirección General de Ingresos reads 'vivienda permanente' as your centre of vital interests, economic or family, and says in terms that merely having a home available, owned or rented, does not make you a tax resident without a personal link to it. The certificate that proves residence is not automatic: the applicant carries the burden of proof, each application is judged on its own, and the DGI can revoke a certificate it has already issued.

Day test: More than 183 days
Alternative test: A permanent home in Panama
How the revenue authority reads it: Centre of vital interests
Burden of proof: On the applicant
Time to cure an incomplete application: 2 months
Time to file a missing power of attorney: 15 working days
Revocation: On the authority's own motion
Tax number for foreigners who cannot get a RUC: NT, free of charge

ParaguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

When Paraguay Treats You as a Tax Resident

Paraguay does not decide individual tax residence by counting days. The regulation that defines the term says a natural person is resident for tax purposes if they hold permanent residency - a migration status, not a presence test - and it still does so by reference to Ley 978/1996, the migration law repealed by Ley 6984 in 2022. What follows from being resident is narrower than in most countries: personal income tax reaches Paraguayan-source income only, at 8, 9 or 10 per cent, and there is no charge at all on personal-service income below G 80,000,000 of gross receipts in the year. Non-residents are taxed at 15 per cent, withheld at source, on Paraguayan-source income.

Test for individual tax residence: Holding permanent residency
Days-present test: None found
What is taxed: Paraguayan-source income only
Personal income tax on services: 8% up to G 50.000.000, 9% to G 150.000.000, 10% above
No tax payable below: G 80.000.000 of gross receipts from personal services in the fiscal year
Non-resident income tax: 15%
Fiscal year: The calendar year

PeruSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-09-21

Becoming Tax-Domiciled in Peru

For a foreigner the test is a single day count: more than 183 calendar days in the country in any rolling twelve months. What makes Peru different is when it bites. Status is fixed at the start of each tax year and changes only take effect from the following one, so someone who crosses 183 days in, say, August becomes domiciled from 1 January - a built-in delay that only Colombia comes near, and only where the days straddle a year boundary. Until then only Peruvian-source income is taxed.

Day threshold: More than 183 calendar days
Counting window: Any rolling period of twelve months
When the status starts: 1 January of the following tax year
Day counting: Physical presence, arrival and departure days both count
Absence counting: Day of departure and day of return do not count
Non-domiciled charge: Peruvian-source income only
Nationality: Irrelevant to the test

Saint Kitts and NevisCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residency in Saint Kitts and Nevis

There is no personal income tax, and the provision that abolished it is datable to the day: section 3(3) of the Income Tax Act, inserted by Act 14 of 1980, disapplies the charging section to income accruing on or after 1 May 1980 to any person other than a company. The Act's residence test survives around it - six months in the basic year, which is the calendar year - and still matters for the handful of charges that remain. What does not disappear is the deduction from wages. The Housing and Social Development Levy taxes employment income on a progressive scale reaching twelve per cent, collected by the Social Security Board for the Comptroller of Inland Revenue, and anyone describing this country as having no tax on earnings is describing one statute and ignoring another.

Personal income tax: None since 1 May 1980
Residence test in the Income Tax Act: 6 months in the basic year
Basic year: The 12 months to 31 December before the year of assessment
Corporation tax: 35 per centas of 2002-01-01
Housing and Social Development Levy, employee: 0 per cent up to $18,720, then 3.5, 10 and 12 per cent
Housing and Social Development Levy, employer: 3 per cent of all wages
Social Security, employee: 5 per cent, ages 16 to 62
Capital gains: Charged only on assets disposed of within a year, and not to individuals since 1980
Citizenship by investment and tax residence: Unconnected

Saint LuciaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax residence in Saint Lucia

Residence is defined on three alternative limbs, and a second term - ordinarily resident - is defined to mean only the first of them. That distinction does real work: a resident is taxed on worldwide income, but a resident who is not ordinarily resident is taxed on foreign income only to the extent it is received in Saint Lucia. Someone who spends more than half the year here without establishing a permanent home is in exactly that position, which is a remittance basis in all but name and the most useful thing in the Act for an incomer. Companies have had a territorial regime since 2018: income deemed to accrue from a source outside Saint Lucia is excluded from a resident company's assessable income. The personal allowance is EC$25,000 and from 1 January 2025 every other allowance and deduction together is capped at EC$40,000. Payments to non-residents are withheld at 25 per cent, and at 15 per cent for one category.

Day-count test: 183 days in the income year
Ordinarily resident: The permanent-abode limb only
Foreign income of a resident who is not ordinarily resident: Taxed only on what is received in Saint Lucia
Foreign income of a resident company: Excludedas of 2018
Personal allowance: EC$25,000as of 2023-01-01
Cap on all other allowances and deductions: EC$40,000as of 2025-01-01
Withholding on payments to non-residents: 25 per cent
Deduction for a child: EC$5,000as of 2025-01-01
Deduction for technology investment: Up to EC$50,000as of 2026-02-19
Exemption for a foreign pension: Full, if you were not resident before retiring
Personal rates from the 2023 income year: 15%, 20%, 30%

Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Tax Residency in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

One hundred and eighty-three days in the basis period makes you resident, and so does keeping a permanent place of abode here and being physically present at all during the year. The two tests do not have the same consequence, and that is the part no guide carries. A resident is charged on income from all sources, in or out of the country - but a person who is resident without being ordinarily resident is charged on foreign income only to the extent it is received here. "Ordinarily resident" is defined by the permanent-abode limb alone, so someone who qualifies purely by counting days is on a remittance basis. Pensions, wherever earned, are exempt up to EC$20,000 a year. The rates printed in the Act are those of 1 January 2009 and three of them have since moved.

Day-count test: 183 days in the basis period
Alternative test: A permanent place of abode plus any physical presence in the basis period
What a resident is charged on: All sources, in or out of the country
What a resident who is not ordinarily resident is charged on: Foreign income only as received here
Pension exemption: EC$20,000 a year, local or foreign
Standard deduction: EC$25,000 for 2024 and 2025
Corporate rate: 28%
Withholding tax on services to non-residents: 20% standard, 10% on rental, 15% for CARICOM royalties, interest and management fees
Filing date: 31 March following the calendar year

SurinameSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Tax Residence: Worldwide Income, and a Residence Test That Is Facts and Circumstances Rather Than Days

Suriname taxes residents on worldwide income and non-residents on Surinamese-source income only. The charging provision is article 1 of the Inkomstenbelasting 1922: income tax is levied from domestic and foreign taxpayers, and a natural person who lives in Suriname is a domestic taxpayer. Article 4 charges the resident on his zuiver inkomen with no geographic limitation, while article 26 charges the non-resident on binnenlands zuiver inkomen and article 27 defines the domestic sources it is made of. The residence test is the striking part, and a reader arriving from a day-count jurisdiction will look for the wrong thing: article 3(1) says where someone lives is judged according to the circumstances. There is no 183-day rule in the Act. Two deeming rules sit beside it - a person who returns to live in Suriname within a year of leaving, without having lived elsewhere in between, is treated as having lived in Suriname throughout the absence, and a Surinamese national abroad in the service of a Surinamese public-law body is treated as living in Suriname, with spouse and resident minor children. The Wet Fiscale Jurisdictie of 2023 confirms the geographical reach of the taxing power out to the continental shelf; it is about territory, not about a territorial basis of taxation.

Basis of taxation for residents: Worldwide
Basis of taxation for non-residents: Surinamese-source income only
Residence test: Judged according to the circumstances
Day count: None in the Act
Deemed resident on a short absence: Return within a year without having lived elsewhere
Tax-free band: The first SRD 90,000 of net incomeas of 2023-01-01
Rate bands: 8 per cent to SRD 101,356.80, 18 per cent to SRD 109,273.80, 28 per cent to SRD 120,193.80, 38 per cent aboveas of 2023-01-01
Remittance basis: None

The BahamasCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-08

Tax Residence in a Country With No Income Tax: What the Statute Book Does and Does Not Contain

There is no income tax in The Bahamas and therefore no test for being resident for income tax purposes - no day count, no permanent-home rule, no centre-of-interests test, because there is nothing for such a test to switch on. The proof is a closed list the publisher prints: Title XLV of the Table of Principal Legislation by Title is headed Revenue and contains thirteen chapters - Stamp, Value Added Tax, Spirits and Beer Manufacture, Real Property Tax, Auction, Animal Protection and Control, Passenger Tax, and four marked Repealed. There is no Income Tax chapter, and the alphabetical list runs from Immigration to Industrial Property with nothing between. What exists instead is a set of taxes that attach to things rather than to people: value added tax at a standard rate of ten per cent, business licence tax charged on turnover with no deduction of any kind and expressly reaching the gross amounts receivable as compensation for personal services, real property tax, stamp duty, and compulsory national insurance contributions for everyone employed or self-employed here. Residence does carry legal weight in two places: the National Health Insurance Act defines ordinary residence as six months, and the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information Act makes a bank ask where you are resident for tax purposes - a question about somewhere else.

Personal income tax: None
Capital gains tax, inheritance tax, wealth tax: None in the Revenue title of the statute book
Statutory test of tax residence for individuals: None
Value added tax: A standard rate of ten per cent
Business licence tax: Charged on turnover, with no deductions whatsoever
Real property tax on undeveloped land held by a non-Bahamian: Seven per cent a year of market value, after two years
National insurance: Compulsory for every employed and self-employed person above the upper limit of compulsory school age
What a bank asks about residence: A self-certification of your residence for tax purposes, for reporting to other jurisdictions
Domestic minimum top-up tax: Charged on entities of in-scope multinational groups, from fiscal years beginning after 31 December 2023

Trinidad and TobagoCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Tax Residence in Trinidad and Tobago: Worldwide Income, and No Statutory Test

Section 5(1) of the Income Tax Act charges tax on the income of any person accruing in or derived from Trinidad and Tobago or elsewhere, and whether received in Trinidad and Tobago or not. That is a worldwide charge, and it is expressed without reference to residence at all. Residence enters at section 5(2), which cuts it back: where income arises outside the country to a person who is not ordinarily resident or not domiciled there, tax is payable only on the amount received in Trinidad and Tobago. So the system is worldwide for the resident and domiciled individual and a remittance basis for everyone else - and the test is disjunctive, not ordinarily resident OR not domiciled, so failing either one is enough. What the Act does not contain is a definition of resident, ordinarily resident or domicile for an individual. Section 2 defines resident company and non-resident company by reference to the Corporation Tax Act and stops there. There is no day count anywhere in the Act, and the figure of 183 days that every secondary source repeats appears in no provision we read. Residence is a question of fact at common law, and the statute leaves it there.

System: Worldwide for the resident and domiciled individual; remittance basis otherwise
Statutory definition of resident for an individual: None
Day-count test: None in the Act
The section 5(2) test: Not ordinarily resident or not domiciled - either one is enough
Foreign employment exercised in the country: Taxed in full whether received here or not
Personal allowance: TT$90,000as of 2023-01-01
Personal allowance for a non-resident on a Trinidad and Tobago pension: TT$90,000
Year of income: The twelve months commencing 1 January
Return due: Within four months after the end of the year of income
Health surcharge: TT$8.25 a week above TT$469.99 a month, otherwise TT$4.80

UruguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Uruguayan Tax Residency

Uruguay gives four independent routes into tax residency, and you need only one of them. Days in the country is the obvious one, but the others catch people who never counted: where your spouse and minor children live, which single country produces the largest share of your gross income, and what you own here. Each is assessed at 31 December, and each stands on its own.

Day count: More than 183 days in the calendar year
Sporadic absences: Up to 30 consecutive days count as days in Uruguay
Vital interests: Spouse and dependent minor children habitually resident here
Main base of activities: More gross income here than in any other single country
Property threshold: Over 15,000,000 UI
Business investment threshold: Over 45,000,000 UI in a promoted project
Assessment date: 31 December
Page last updated by the publisher: 2025-10-20

VenezuelaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

When You Become a Venezuelan Tax Resident

Venezuela taxes a resident on income from anywhere in the world and a non-resident only on income arising in Venezuela. The day count is 183 days, and the way it is written is unusual enough to be worth reading slowly. The income tax law defines who is not resident: someone whose stay does not run beyond 183 days in a calendar year and who is not domiciled in Venezuela under the tax code. Its sole paragraph then says when such a person is treated as resident - when they have stayed a continuous period of more than 183 days in the calendar year immediately before the year being taxed. So it is the previous year that is counted, and it has to be a continuous spell, which is not how most of the region writes the same test. A non-resident individual is taxed at a flat 34 per cent.

Basis of taxation for residents: Worldwide income
Basis of taxation for non-residents: Income arising in Venezuela only
Day count: More than 183 days
Year counted: The calendar year immediately before the tax year
Continuous or cumulative: Continuous, under the income tax law's own test
Non-resident individual rate: 34 per cent
Presumption for Venezuelan nationals: Resident, unless proved otherwise