German Tax Residency Test: Unlimited Tax Liability Without a Day Count

Am I German tax resident? The short answer

Germany has no minimum day count. That single fact makes it the clearest example, among the countries covered in this series, of a residence test that can ignore days entirely. Two independent routes create unlimited tax liability on worldwide income, and either one is enough on its own.

The first route, under § 8 AO, is having a dwelling in Germany in circumstances indicating that you will keep and use it. There is no threshold of days attached to this test at all — a flat kept furnished and available for your use can be enough even if you rarely set foot in it. The second route, under § 9 AO, is a continuous stay of more than six months that is not merely temporary, and that six-month period can run across a year end rather than sitting neatly inside a single tax year. Meeting either route brings your worldwide income within the German charge.

How Germany decides: two independent routes to unlimited liability

Because the two routes under the Abgabenordnung (the German fiscal code) work independently, it helps to see them side by side before working through either one in detail.

Satisfying either route is sufficient on its own; there is no need to meet both. This is a meaningfully different structure from jurisdictions that set a single day threshold, such as the 183-day rule found in many other countries, and it is why day-counting alone is a poor guide to your German position. Someone can spend very few days physically present in Germany in a given year and still be fully liable, purely because of what they own or rent there.

Wohnsitz under § 8 AO: the dwelling test with no day count

The Wohnsitz test asks whether you have a dwelling in Germany in circumstances indicating that you will keep and use it. The operative concepts are availability and intention, not occupancy and not ownership.

A flat or house that you rent or own, keep furnished, and can access whenever you choose will generally satisfy this test, even where your actual time spent there in the year is minimal. The dwelling does not need to be your main home, and it does not need to be occupied for any set number of days to count. What matters is whether it remains at your disposal.

This is what makes § 8 AO the commonest route into unexpected liability. People who track their days in Germany carefully, and believe they have kept well under any threshold, can still find themselves fully taxable because they retained a flat rather than giving it up. Letting the property genuinely at arm's length, so that it is no longer available for your own use, is what removes it from the test — a nominal or family arrangement that still leaves the property accessible to you will not.

Gewöhnlicher Aufenthalt under § 9 AO: habitual abode and the six-month rule

Where no dwelling is available, the second route looks at whether your presence in Germany amounts to habitual abode — presence that is not merely temporary. A continuous stay of more than six months is treated as meeting this test.

The detail that catches people out is that this six-month period is assessed as a continuous stretch, not against the calendar year. A stay that begins in October and continues through to the following May can create habitual abode across both tax years, even though neither individual calendar year on its own reaches six months of presence. Assessing the position year by year, rather than by the actual continuous period, is the most common error made in self-assessed German residence positions.

Short interruptions do not break the continuity of the stay. Holidays, business trips, and similar absences are treated as part of the same continuous period rather than as a reset, so a series of short trips out of Germany during an otherwise continuous stay will not prevent habitual abode from arising.

The practical trap: low days, unlimited liability anyway

Put the two routes together and the practical trap becomes clear. Someone who is diligent about limiting their physical presence in Germany, and who genuinely believes they have stayed under whatever threshold they have heard about, can nonetheless be fully taxable on worldwide income for a reason that has nothing to do with days at all.

Employer-provided accommodation can amount to a Wohnsitz if it remains available for the individual's use. A room kept permanently available at a family property, even where the individual spends most of the year elsewhere, can do the same. In each case the test is availability, not who holds legal title and not how often the space is actually used.

This means the moment of real risk is often not a long stay in Germany but the decision to acquire or retain German accommodation while living elsewhere. That decision can create unlimited liability immediately, with no minimum period of presence required before it takes effect.

Limited liability: German-source income when neither route applies

Where neither the Wohnsitz test nor the habitual abode test is met, you are not subject to unlimited tax liability, and your worldwide income sits outside the German charge. This does not mean Germany has no claim on you at all.

Limited tax liability applies to German-source income even where you are not resident under either route. This covers income such as German rental income, German employment income, and income from a German business or permanent establishment. In practice this income is often collected through withholding at source, so the obligation can arise without any separate filing trigger from the taxpayer's side. Anyone with German-source income but no dwelling or extended stay should still expect a German tax position on that income specifically, distinct from the broader question of unlimited liability.

Leaving Germany: exit tax and extended limited liability

Ending unlimited tax liability is not always a clean break. Germany applies an exit tax to substantial shareholdings at the point unlimited liability ends, and separate extended limited liability rules can continue to apply to those who move to a low-tax jurisdiction. Both regimes carry their own conditions outside the scope of this guide, and neither should be assumed away simply because the Wohnsitz and habitual abode tests are no longer met.

Because giving up the dwelling usually sets the date on which unlimited liability ends, anyone leaving Germany while holding a substantial shareholding, or moving to a materially lower-tax jurisdiction, should take advice on timing before disposing of the dwelling rather than after.

Given how little it takes to trigger the Wohnsitz test in the first place, the most valuable point in this entire position is the one before it arises. Anyone considering buying or renting property in Germany while living elsewhere should take advice on § 8 AO first — it is the commonest route into unexpected worldwide taxation, precisely because it requires no day count.

Compliance caveat

This guide and the accompanying interactive tool address the core tests under §§ 8 and 9 AO on the facts you provide. They do not address church tax, trade tax, the precise mechanics of the exit tax on substantial shareholdings, the conditions attached to extended limited liability, or the application of double tax treaty tie-breakers where another country also claims you as resident. Habitual abode in particular is assessed on the full facts and is not reducible to a simple rule. Always confirm your position with a qualified German tax adviser (Steuerberater) before filing or before making a decision that depends on the outcome.

How Global Investments can help

Because neither route into German unlimited tax liability depends on a day count, the moment that matters most is often the decision to acquire or retain a German dwelling, not a running tally of days spent in the country. Our advisers work with clients across more than 60 countries to review German residence exposure before property is bought or let, model the effect of a planned stay that may straddle a year end, and coordinate with German tax specialists on the exit tax and extended limited liability rules where a departure from Germany is being planned.