{
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Provedays",
    "url": "https://provedays.com"
  },
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "Provedays — provedays.com",
  "notice": "Rule data is licensed CC BY 4.0. Golden test fixtures, guide prose and the rule schema are not covered by this licence and remain all rights reserved. See https://provedays.com/terms/.",
  "documentation": "https://provedays.com/methodology/",
  "rule_id": "za.tax.physical_presence",
  "versions": [
    {
      "rule_id": "za.tax.physical_presence",
      "version": "2026.1",
      "jurisdiction": "ZA",
      "title": "South Africa physical presence test",
      "summary": "Income Tax Act s.1(1) 'resident' para (a)(ii): resident by physical presence when you EXCEED 91 days in the current year of assessment (1 March – 28/29 February), EXCEED 91 days in EACH of the five preceding years, and EXCEED 915 days in aggregate across those five preceding years. Resident from the FIRST day of the qualifying year. Part of a day counts; transit through the Republic without formally entering at a port of entry does not. The test does not apply in a year you are ordinarily resident (you are resident anyway).",
      "evaluator": "lookback_aggregation",
      "determinative": true,
      "official_source_url": "https://www.sars.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/Legal/Notes/LAPD-IntR-IN-2012-04-Resident-definition-natural-person-physical-presence.pdf",
      "last_verified": "2026-09-01",
      "effective_from": "2002-03-01",
      "effective_to": null,
      "disclaimer_level": "standard",
      "convention": {
        "part_day_counts": true,
        "arrival_day_counts": true,
        "departure_day_counts": true,
        "same_day_in_out": "counts_in",
        "transit_excluded": true
      },
      "params": {
        "reference_period": {
          "type": "tax_year",
          "start_month": 3,
          "start_day": 1
        },
        "countries": [
          "ZA"
        ],
        "lookback": {
          "periods": 6,
          "total_threshold": 915,
          "per_period_minimum": 91,
          "per_period_minimum_mode": "all_must_meet",
          "exclude_current_period_from_total": true,
          "op": "gt",
          "current_period_minimum": 91
        }
      },
      "notifications": [
        {
          "at_count": 85,
          "at_fraction_of_limit": null,
          "message_key": "za91.approaching"
        }
      ],
      "notes": [
        "Verified against IN4 (Issue 5, 3 August 2018) and the s.1(1) statutory text it annexes, read 1 September 2026. Every operator is strictly 'exceeding' (gt): >91 current, >91 each of five preceding, >915 aggregate across the five preceding years — the aggregate EXCLUDES the current year.",
        "Convention (statutory proviso (A)): 'a day shall include a part of a day, but shall not include any day that a person is in transit through the Republic between two places outside the Republic and that person does not formally enter the Republic through a port of entry'. Label such days 'transit'.",
        "Onset: resident from the FIRST day of the year of assessment in which all requirements are met (IN4 §5).",
        "Cessation is the separate 330-day rule (za.tax.cessation_330): proviso (B) deems non-residence from the day presence ceased, where the person is outside the Republic for at least 330 continuous full days IMMEDIATELY AFTER that day. The two SARS formulations reconcile: the 330-day clock runs from the day after departure; cessation takes effect from the departure day.",
        "Gate: the test does not apply in a year of assessment in which the person is at any time ordinarily resident — but an ordinarily resident person is resident regardless, so a met counter is never misleading; a not-met counter says nothing for the ordinarily resident (sufficient_not_necessary)."
      ]
    }
  ]
}