Tax residency in France: the 183-day rule
Medium confidenceReviewed in September 2026
The short answer
183days in calendar year
- Window
- Calendar year
- How it counts
- Any presence during the day
- Direction
- Reaching the threshold makes you resident
How the days are counted
France has no day rule in its law. Article 4 B of the CGI talks about your home and your principal place of stay, and the tax administration's doctrine reads a principal stay as more than six months in the year. This counter is that practical reading, nothing more: it does not decide your residency.
If your home, your work or the centre of your economic interests is in France, you can be resident on far fewer days.