Delta Law Expat Services Desk ｜ Announcement on the Standards for Determining the Duration of Residence in China of Individuals Without a Domicile in China（《关于在中国境内无住所的个人居住时间判定标准的公告》）, 财政部 税务总局公告2019年第34号（发文字号：财政部公告2019年第34号）, current version in force from 2019-01-01
- Whether a non-domiciled individual's foreign-source income is taxed in China turns on a rolling six-year look-back, not on a single year's day count. 是否就境外所得纳税，看的是连续六年的滚动测算，不是单一年度的天数。
- That six-year look-back can only be counted starting from 2019 onward — Announcement Article 1, second paragraph, a rule stated precisely and often mis-cited online.
- A single departure from China exceeding 30 days in any year that otherwise reached 183 days resets the entire six-year count to zero — Implementing Regulation Article 4, second limb.
- A day only counts toward the 183-day threshold if the individual's stay in China that day reaches a full 24 hours — Announcement Article 2.
- Exemption for foreign-source, foreign-paid income is conditional on filing with the competent tax authority — Implementing Regulation Article 4, a filing requirement the Announcement itself does not restate.
- This page is a rules map, not a filing guide: any procedural step below is subject to the current published requirements of the competent tax authority.
1. The document at a glance
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Full title | Announcement on the Standards for Determining the Duration of Residence in China of Individuals Without a Domicile in China（《关于在中国境内无住所的个人居住时间判定标准的公告》） |
| Document number | Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration Announcement 2019 No. 34（财政部 税务总局公告2019年第34号，发文字号：财政部公告2019年第34号——both forms are official; this page uses the full form once, then the short form） |
| Adopted / promulgated | Promulgated 2019-03-14 by the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration |
| Current version in force from | 2019-01-01; full text three articles, unrevised since promulgation |
| Issuing authority | Ministry of Finance 财政部 and State Taxation Administration 税务总局 |
| Official text | https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-10/16/content_5440701.htm |
| What this page covers | How the 183-day test, the six-year look-back, and the single-departure-over-30-days reset under this Announcement — read together with Article 4 of the Implementing Regulations of the Individual Income Tax Law — decide whether a non-domiciled individual's foreign-source income is taxed in China. |
2. Who this affects: non-domiciled individuals, and where the Announcement sits in the statute
The rule in this Announcement applies only to a "non-domiciled individual" (无住所个人) — someone without a domicile within China for individual income tax purposes. Domicile is not defined in the Announcement itself; it comes from the upper-level regulation the Announcement implements, the Implementing Regulations of the Individual Income Tax Law of the PRC（《中华人民共和国个人所得税法实施条例》）, State Council Order No. 707.
个人所得税法所称在中国境内有住所，是指因户籍、家庭、经济利益关系而在中国境内习惯性居住；所称从中国境内和境外取得的所得，分别是指来源于中国境内的所得和来源于中国境外的所得。
Article 2: For the purposes of the Individual Income Tax Law, "having a domicile within the territory of China" means habitual residence within the territory of China by reason of hukou (household registration), family, or economic-interest ties; "income sourced from within and outside the territory of China" means, respectively, income sourced within the territory of China and income sourced outside the territory of China.
Unofficial translation; the Chinese text as officially published prevails.
Domicile here is a status test, not a residence-duration test: it turns on hukou, family, or economic-interest ties within China, not on days spent in the country. Most foreign nationals working in China do not meet this definition — which is exactly why the day-counting rules below exist: they decide tax exposure for people physically present in China for extended periods but not domiciled here under Article 2.
The operative rule for that group sits in Article 4 of the same Implementing Regulations; the 2019 Announcement spells out how each element of Article 4 is measured.
在中国境内无住所的个人，在中国境内居住累计满183天的年度连续不满六年的，经向主管税务机关备案，其来源于中国境外且由境外单位或者个人支付的所得，免予缴纳个人所得税；在中国境内居住累计满183天的任一年度中有一次离境超过30天的，其在中国境内居住累计满183天的年度的连续年限重新起算。
Article 4: For a non-domiciled individual whose consecutive count of years with cumulative residence in China of 183 days or more is fewer than six years, that individual's income sourced outside the territory of China and paid by an entity or individual outside the territory of China is exempt from individual income tax upon filing with the competent tax authority; where, in any year in which cumulative residence in China reached 183 days or more, that individual had a single departure from China exceeding 30 days, the consecutive count of years reaching 183 days or more is reset.
Unofficial translation; the Chinese text as officially published prevails.
Two points from this article carry into everything below. First, the exemption is conditional on filing with the competent tax authority — Article 4 says so in its own text（「经向主管税务机关备案」）, a condition Announcement Article 1 does not repeat. Second, this article already contains the reset mechanism that Announcement Article 1, second paragraph, later dates to a fixed starting point. Article 5 sets out a separate, narrower rule for non-domiciled individuals residing 90 days or less in a tax year; outside this page's scope.
3. The operative test, article by article
Announcement 2019 No. 34 has only three articles. Article 3 is the one-line effective-date clause already captured in the table above. Articles 1 and 2 carry the entire operative rule, and both must be read in full — the second paragraph of Article 1 is the sentence most often garbled in secondhand summaries of this rule.
无住所个人一个纳税年度在中国境内累计居住满183天的，如果此前六年在中国境内每年累计居住天数都满183天而且没有任何一年单次离境超过30天，该纳税年度来源于中国境内、境外所得应当缴纳个人所得税；如果此前六年的任一年在中国境内累计居住天数不满183天或者单次离境超过30天，该纳税年度来源于中国境外且由境外单位或者个人支付的所得，免予缴纳个人所得税。
Article 1: Where a non-domiciled individual has cumulatively resided within the territory of China for 183 days or more in a tax year: if, in each of the preceding six years, that individual's cumulative residence in China reached 183 days or more every year, and there was no year in which a single departure from China exceeded 30 days, then that individual's income sourced both within and outside the territory of China for that tax year shall be subject to individual income tax; if, in any of the preceding six years, that individual's cumulative residence in China was less than 183 days, or a single departure exceeded 30 days, then that individual's income for that tax year sourced outside the territory of China and paid by an entity or individual outside the territory of China is exempt from individual income tax.
Unofficial translation; the Chinese text as officially published prevails.
Read carefully: the current-year 183-day threshold only opens the question. The preceding six years, not the current year alone, decide whether foreign-source income is taxed — both conditions must hold in every one of those years for worldwide taxation; a single failing year flips it to exemption.
前款所称此前六年，是指该纳税年度的前一年至前六年的连续六个年度，此前六年的起始年度自2019年（含）以后年度开始计算。
The "preceding six years" referred to in the preceding paragraph means the six consecutive years running from the year immediately before the tax year in question back to the sixth year before it; the starting year of that six-year window is counted from the year 2019 (inclusive) onward.
Unofficial translation; the Chinese text as officially published prevails.
This is the sentence most often mis-stated in secondhand summaries of the rule. The six-year window cannot reach back to include any year before 2019, no matter how long an individual has actually lived in China. Practically, the earliest tax year in which "worldwide taxation" could be triggered under this Announcement is 2025 — the first year for which a full, uninterrupted six-year window (2019 through 2024) exists. Before that, the six-year condition in Article 1 cannot yet be met, because the counted window has not run its full six years from the 2019 starting point.
无住所个人一个纳税年度内在中国境内累计居住天数，按照个人在中国境内累计停留的天数计算。在中国境内停留的当天满24小时的，计入中国境内居住天数，在中国境内停留的当天不足24小时的，不计入中国境内居住天数。
Article 2: A non-domiciled individual's cumulative number of days of residence within the territory of China in a tax year is calculated according to the number of days that individual has cumulatively stayed within the territory of China. A day on which the individual's stay within the territory of China reaches a full 24 hours is counted as a day of residence in China; a day on which the stay is less than 24 hours is not counted as a day of residence in China.
Unofficial translation; the Chinese text as officially published prevails.
This is the mechanic underneath every day-count in Articles 1 and 4 — the current-year figure and each preceding year's figure are all built on this 24-hour, same-day rule, stricter than simply counting calendar dates between an entry and exit stamp.
4. The decision tree
The three articles above resolve into a single sequence of tests. Every branch below traces back to a specific article; nothing in this table is an interpretation beyond the text quoted above.
| Step | Test | Outcome | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 — current-year threshold | Did the individual cumulatively reside in China for 183 days or more in the tax year in question, counted under the 24-hour same-day rule? | No → the "worldwide taxation" question under this Announcement does not arise for that year (separate rules, including Implementing Regulation art. 5's 90-day rule, may apply and are outside this page). Yes → proceed to Step 2. | Announcement art. 1; day-count mechanic per art. 2 |
| Step 2 — six-year look-back | For each of the six consecutive years immediately preceding the tax year in question — a window that can only start counting from 2019 (inclusive) onward — did the individual (a) reside in China 183 days or more in every one of those years, and (b) have no year with a single departure exceeding 30 days? | Both (a) and (b) true for all six years → Step 3a. Either (a) or (b) fails in any one of the six years → Step 3b. | Announcement art. 1, first and second paragraphs |
| Step 3a — six-year test satisfied | — | The tax year's income sourced both within and outside China is subject to individual income tax. | Announcement art. 1, first limb |
| Step 3b — six-year test not satisfied | — | The tax year's income sourced outside China and paid by an entity or individual outside China is exempt from individual income tax; China-source income remains taxable. | Announcement art. 1, second limb; Implementing Regulation art. 4 |
| Reset trigger (feeds back into Step 2 for every future year) | Did any year that otherwise reached 183 days also have a single departure exceeding 30 days? | If yes, the consecutive count of 183-day years resets to zero, and a new six-year count begins running from that reset — again never reaching back before 2019. | Implementing Regulation art. 4, second limb; Announcement art. 1, first paragraph |
| Claiming the Step 3b exemption | Has the required filing with the competent tax authority been made for the exemption to apply? | The exemption under Implementing Regulation art. 4 is conditional on filing; procedure, forms, and deadlines are subject to the current published requirements of the competent tax authority. | Implementing Regulation art. 4 |
Two features are easy to miss. The 30-day test in Step 2 and the reset-trigger row look at the same underlying fact — a single departure exceeding 30 days — applied year by year, not as an aggregate of days abroad across the window. And the window is not portable across a reset: a fresh six-year count begins, but per Article 1, second paragraph, it still can never start before 2019.
5. What is taxed once the test resolves
The practical stakes of Step 2 are the scope of taxable income for the tax year, not a change in tax rates or a change in whether the individual is taxed at all — China-source income is taxable either way.
| Six-year look-back outcome | Income subject to Chinese individual income tax for that tax year | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Satisfied — every one of the preceding six years (from 2019 onward) reached 183 days, with no single departure over 30 days in any of them | Both China-source income and worldwide (foreign-source) income are subject to individual income tax. | Announcement art. 1, first limb |
| Not satisfied — any one of the preceding six years fell short of 183 days, or had a single departure exceeding 30 days | China-source income remains subject to individual income tax; foreign-source income paid by an entity or individual outside China is exempt, conditional on the filing required by Implementing Regulation art. 4. | Announcement art. 1, second limb; Implementing Regulation art. 4 |
Because the six-year window cannot begin before 2019, the "worldwide taxation" row has no application before tax year 2025, regardless of how long an individual has resided in China — a mechanical consequence of Article 1's second paragraph, not a separate transitional rule.
6. Who runs into this, and how it is used
Three groups sit on either side of this test in practice: foreign executives on multi-year China assignments approaching or past the current-year 183-day threshold; individuals and employers structuring home-leave and business-travel patterns around the 30-day single-departure rule; and finance or HR functions tracking, year over year, whether the six-year clock is still running or has reset. None of this changes what Articles 1, 2, and 4 actually say — these are simply the situations in which the test above gets applied.
- Misconception: Once a non-domiciled individual has lived in China for six years, that person becomes permanently taxed on worldwide income from then on. In fact: the count resets to zero the moment a single departure exceeds 30 days in any qualifying year, and the window can never reach back before 2019 — six years of physical presence is not, by itself, six years toward this test.
- Misconception: A single trip abroad of around 29–30 days is safe as long as total days outside China during the year stay within a comfortable margin. In fact: art. 4 and Announcement art. 1 test a single departure exceeding 30 days, not cumulative days abroad — one 31-day trip breaks that year's qualification even if every other day was spent in China.
- Misconception: Reaching 183 days in China this year is itself enough to trigger worldwide taxation. In fact: the current-year threshold only opens the question; worldwide taxation follows only if every one of the preceding six years independently satisfied both conditions.
- Misconception: Once the six-year test is not satisfied, exemption for foreign-source income is automatic. In fact: Implementing Regulation art. 4 conditions that exemption on filing with the competent tax authority — a requirement Announcement art. 1 does not restate, and which does not disappear because it goes unmentioned there.
- Reconstruct the six-year window correctly. For each of the six years preceding the tax year in question — never earlier than 2019 — verify cumulative China residence days and whether a single departure in that year exceeded 30 days, per Announcement art. 1.
- Recompute day-counts on the 24-hour same-day standard. Verify residence-day tallies for the current year and each preceding year are built on Announcement art. 2's full-24-hour rule, not a simple calendar-date count between entry and exit stamps.
- Confirm whether the required filing has been made. Check whether the filing that Implementing Regulation art. 4 conditions the exemption on has actually been completed for the tax year in question; the Announcement's operative text alone does not evidence that filing.
- Track reset events year by year, not retrospectively. A single departure exceeding 30 days in a year that otherwise reached 183 days is the most common point at which the six-year clock resets, and the detail most often missed when reconstructing the test after the fact.
- Laws and Regulations for Foreign Nationals in China — the index for this section's regulatory pages.
- Money · Cross-Border Funds: China's Compliance Framework — cross-border remittance rules that intersect with tax-resident status.
- Depart · Leaving China: Exit, Deregistration & Tax Clearance — where the six-year and 183-day outcome carries into an exit-year filing.
- Own · Buying Property in China as a Foreigner — background on identity and status questions foreign residents in China also face.
- FAQ · 10 Questions Expats Ask About Chinese Law — for shorter, plain-language questions on related topics.
- 《关于在中国境内无住所的个人居住时间判定标准的公告》，财政部 税务总局公告2019年第34号（发文字号：财政部公告2019年第34号），2019 年 3 月 14 日发布，自 2019 年 1 月 1 日起施行，全文三条，未经修订。本文引用其第一条（含第一、二款）、第二条、第三条。官方原文 https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-10/16/content_5440701.htm
- 《中华人民共和国个人所得税法实施条例》，国务院令第707号，1994 年 1 月 28 日发布，2018 年 12 月 18 日第四次修订，自 2019 年 1 月 1 日起施行。本文引用其第二条、第四条。官方原文 https://fgk.chinatax.gov.cn/zcfgk/c100010/c5194444/content.html
- Status and timing note 效力与时点提示：Both instruments are current and unrevised as stated above. The six-year window in Announcement art. 1, second paragraph, can only be counted from 2019 (inclusive) onward, regardless of an individual's actual years of residence in China before that date. Filing procedures, forms, and any related administrative deadlines are subject to the current published requirements of the competent tax authority; this page does not describe filing steps.
This article is general legal research and does not constitute legal advice; by law, a law firm may not guarantee case outcomes. 本文为一般性法律研究，不构成法律意见；依据法律规定，律所不得承诺办案结果。
