Apply paragraph 250(1)(a) only after factual residence
Income Tax Act paragraph 250(1)(a) deems a person resident throughout a taxation year when the person sojourned in Canada in that year for one period, or periods totalling, 183 days or more. The CRA describes this as a rule for an individual who has not established enough residential ties to be factually resident. It is not the first or only Canadian residence test.
The prerequisite matters because factual residence and deemed residence are distinct domestic paths. Someone with a settled ordinary life and significant residential ties in Canada may already be factually resident even with fewer days. Someone with no such factual residence reaches this particular deemed path only if the statutory qualifying-sojourn total is confirmed.
Separate physical presence from a qualifying sojourn
Physical presence is evidence of where a person was, but the CRA folio says a non-resident is not automatically sojourning for every day or part day physically present. A qualifying sojourn is a temporary stay in the sense of establishing a temporary residence, and the nature of each stay must be considered separately. Work, vacation and other labels do not replace that factual classification.
Once a stay is established as a qualifying sojourn, the CRA considers part of a day to count as one day for this gate. That part-day convention does not convert every airport transit, meeting or physical-presence day into sojourning. The classification comes first; only a day or part of a day within the qualifying sojourn is counted as one day.
Use recorded presence as a provisional upper bound
CRA guidance excludes days when a person lived in the United States, commuted to work in Canada and returned to the normal residence outside Canada. The folio explains that such a daily commuter is not sojourning, while a vacation in Canada can be. Whether time away from work is spent inside or outside Canada can also matter to the commuter distinction.
For planning, physical presence minus identified US commuter days is only a provisional upper bound on possible qualifying-sojourn days. It may still contain transit, business or other presence that has not been classified as sojourning. If that upper bound is below 183, this paragraph's gate cannot be reached on those records, but fewer than 183 does not establish final non-residence or displace a factual-residence analysis.
Read a met gate as an entire-year result
At least 183 confirmed qualifying-sojourning days identify the paragraph 250(1)(a) domestic deemed-residence path. The Act says the person is deemed resident throughout the taxation year, and the CRA describes the result as applying for the entire calendar year. It is not residence that begins only on day 183, and the threshold does not itself decide when any factual residence began or ended.
Even a confirmed gate is not the final personal answer. Subsection 250(5) may apply where an income tax treaty treats the person as resident in another country and not Canada. Other subsection 250(1) categories remain outside this calculation. The estimator therefore cannot predict a treaty result, filing obligation, filing status, tax liability or whether submitted days legally qualify as sojourns.
- Classify qualifying sojourns before applying the part-day count.
- Treat presence less identified US commuter days as an upper bound, not a final count.
- A met gate concerns the entire calendar year and still leaves treaty review open.
Official sources
- CRA — Deemed residents and the 183-day rule
- CRA — Folio discussion of sojourners and part days
- Income Tax Act — paragraph 250(1)(a)
Sources were checked on . Linked institutions may update their guidance after that date.