At a glance
- The test
- For a foreigner: stayed or worked in Singapore for at least 183 days in the previous calendar year. Two concessions: a continuous period of at least 183 days over two calendar years, or three consecutive years.
- Period
- The calendar year before the year of assessment. For example, 1 January to 31 December 2025 is the basis year for YA 2026.
- What counts as a day
- IRAS counts presence for any part of a day as one day. For employees based in Singapore, employment days include weekends, public holidays and temporary absences.
The rule
IRAS says a foreigner is a tax resident for a year of assessment if they stayed or worked in Singapore for at least 183 days in the previous calendar year. IRAS calls this the period of stay, inclusive of work.
Two administrative concessions can apply. If a foreign employee works in Singapore across two calendar years and the continuous period, including presence just before and after the job, is at least 183 days, both years are covered. This excludes company directors, public entertainers and professionals. If someone stays or works continuously for three consecutive years, all three years are covered, even if the first and last years are under 183 days.
Singapore citizens and permanent residents who normally live in Singapore apart from temporary absences are covered on that basis, not by days. A work pass valid for at least a year is treated as residence at first, then reviewed at tax clearance against the 183-day test.
How Atrium counts it
Atrium counts a day in Singapore when your recorded trips show you there at any point that day. Arrival and departure days both count. The year is the calendar year, shown as, for example, 2025 (YA 2026).
It shows the days left before the 183-day condition. For the two-year and three-year concessions it looks for one continuous stay in your recorded trips, and it treats an absence of 30 days or fewer as part of that stay. These concessions are only checked if you tell Atrium the employment was continuous.
This differs from IRAS in one place. IRAS also counts employment days spent abroad for employees based in Singapore. Atrium counts days present only, so its count can be lower than IRAS's. Atrium does not decide who is a director, entertainer or professional, or who normally lives in Singapore.
What catches people out
- The 183 days can include days worked, not only days present, for employees based in Singapore.
- 182 days does not reach the 183-day condition.
- A stay that starts in November and ends the following May can be covered by the two-year concession even though neither calendar year reaches 183 days.
- The three-year concession needs a stay or job that runs across three calendar years in a row.
- The concessions have exclusions for directors, public entertainers and professionals.
Cases
Worked example (illustrative): a stay that falls short of 183 days
Mei, a made-up foreign consultant, is in Singapore from 10 March 2025 to 20 August 2025. Counting every day she is present, that is 22 days in March, 30 in April, 31 in May, 30 in June, 31 in July and 20 in August: 164 days. The 183-day condition would need 19 more days, so the 183rd day would be 8 September 2025. IRAS's own example of 1 April to 3 October 2025 is counted the same way, as 186 days.
Count the first and last day, then subtract from 183 to get the days left.
Sources
Based on the sources above, last reviewed on 2026-10-04. Educational content, not tax advice. Atrium counts days; whether those days make you resident is for you and your adviser to decide.