How many days can I stay in Pakistan before I count as a tax resident?

What does the law say?

Section 82 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 sets the tests for a resident individual. The day-count test is clause (a): an individual is resident for a tax year if present in Pakistan “for a period of, or periods amounting in aggregate to, one hundred and eighty-three days or more in the tax year”. So 182 days leaves you below the line under this clause, and 183 days puts you over it.

Two other clauses can make you resident without reaching 183 days:

• Clause (c): an employee or official of the Federal Government or a Provincial Government posted abroad in the tax year.
• Clause (d): a citizen of Pakistan who “is not present in any other country for more than one hundred and eighty-two days during the tax year or who is not a resident taxpayer of any other country”.

Clause (d) matters to every citizen reading this page. Counting your days in Pakistan answers only clause (a). Our separate page on citizens working abroad covers clause (d) in detail.

How are the days counted?

The tax year is the twelve months ending on 30 June (section 74), so tax year 2027 runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Days are counted inside that window only, not over a calendar year or a rolling twelve months.

Rule 14 of the Income Tax Rules, 2002 sets the counting method for section 82:

• A part of a day in Pakistan counts as a whole day, including the day you arrive and the day you leave.
• Public holidays, days of leave (including sick leave), days when your activity is interrupted by a strike, lock-out or supply delay, and holidays spent in Pakistan around any activity here all count as whole days.
• A day or part of a day in Pakistan solely in transit between two places outside Pakistan does not count.

What happened to the 120-day rule?

Before 2021, section 82 had a clause (ab): a person present for 120 days or more in the tax year, who had also been in Pakistan for 365 days or more in the four preceding years, was resident. The footnotes in the consolidated text record that clause (ab) was inserted by the Finance Act, 2019 and omitted by the Finance Act, 2021. An even older 90-day test, clause (b), was omitted by the Finance Act, 2003. Neither applies to tax year 2027.

Why does resident or non-resident status matter?

Section 81 makes you a resident person for the year if you are a resident individual under section 82, and a non-resident person otherwise. Section 11 then decides what is taxed:

Status for the tax year	Income taken into account
Resident (section 11(5))	Pakistan-source and foreign-source income
Non-resident (section 11(6))	Pakistan-source income only

Status is decided year by year. Being resident in tax year 2026 says nothing about tax year 2027.

Worked example (illustrative figures)

Kamran works in Jeddah and is a Pakistani citizen. In tax year 2027 he makes three trips to Karachi:

1. Trip 1: lands 20 July 2026, leaves 31 August 2026. Counting both the arrival and departure days, that is 12 days in July (20 to 31) plus 31 days in August = 43 days.
2. Trip 2: lands 15 December 2026, leaves 14 February 2027. December 15 to 31 is 17 days, January is 31 days, February 1 to 14 is 14 days = 62 days.
3. Trip 3: lands 1 May 2027, leaves 30 June 2027. May is 31 days, June is 30 days = 61 days.

Total: 43 + 62 + 61 = 166 days. That is below 183, so clause (a) does not make him resident. He also changed planes in Lahore once for a single day between Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur, which rule 14(2)(c) excludes.

Kamran is not finished. His days in Saudi Arabia for the year, and whether he is a resident taxpayer there, still have to be tested under clause (d) before he can treat himself as non-resident.

If Kamran had stayed until 16 July 2027 instead of leaving on 30 June, the extra days would fall in tax year 2028 and would not change the tax year 2027 count.

What if I work from Pakistan during a long visit?

Rule 14(2)(b) counts days of leave and holidays in Pakistan as full days, so a long holiday counts the same as working days. Separately, if you work while here, section 101(1)(a) treats salary received from employment exercised in Pakistan as Pakistan-source income, wherever it is paid and whatever your residence status. That is covered on our pages about foreign salary and remote work.

Common mistakes

• Counting only nights. Rule 14(2)(a) counts part-days, so arrival and departure days are both included.
• Counting from January. Section 74 fixes a July to June tax year.
• Relying on the 120-day rule. It was omitted by the Finance Act, 2021.
• Stopping at the day count. For citizens, clause (d) of section 82 can make you resident even below 183 days in Pakistan.

What to check in the official text

Read section 82 with its footnotes to see which clauses were omitted and when, and rule 14 of the Income Tax Rules, 2002. The Rules in this corpus are amended to 24 November 2023, so check for later amendments to rule 14 before relying on it. The Ordinance does not say which documents prove your days in Pakistan.