Maryland — Tax Residency Rule

Summary

Day threshold

183 days or more

Window

Taxable year (usually the calendar year)

Second condition

A place of abode maintained > 6 months

Day definition

Any part of a day; ≤ 24 continuous hours = 1 day

Effect

Full-year resident, taxed on all income

Basis

Tax-General §10-101(k); AR 37

Maryland treats you as a full-year resident — even if your permanent home is elsewhere — if you maintain a place of abode in Maryland for more than six months of the taxable year and are physically present there for 183 days or more. The day count is inclusive: day 183 itself meets it, so 182 is the most you can spend. Separately, being domiciled in Maryland on the last day of the year makes you a resident with no day count at all.

Who it applies to

This matters most if you are:

• A remote worker or frequent traveler who spends long stretches in Maryland but calls another state home.
• Someone who keeps an apartment or house in Maryland while living or working elsewhere.
• A person moving into or out of Maryland mid-year, where days and abode straddle the move.

It applies regardless of where you are domiciled — statutory residency is about physical presence plus a place to live, not about your legal permanent home.

The rule — and why it exists

Tax-General §10-101(k)(1) defines a resident individual as someone who is domiciled in Maryland on the last day of the taxable year, or who “for more than 6 months of the taxable year, maintained a place of abode in this State, whether domiciled in this State or not”. The Comptroller's regulations and Administrative Release 37 add the physical-presence condition, so the statutory test has two parts:

• The place of abode. You maintain a place of abode in Maryland for more than six months of the taxable year. The statute does not require it to be "permanent" — a place to live that you keep is enough.
• The day count. You are physically present in Maryland for 183 days or more during the taxable year.

The vacation-home carve-out: AR 37 says the abode condition is "not intended to include every person who owns property within this State". If a residence is used as a vacation home or to visit family and friends, you cannot be a resident unless you are also physically present for 183 days or more — which is why the day count is the line that matters in practice.

Counting the days

1. 1Count every day of physical presence in Maryland during the taxable year (for most people, 1 January to 31 December).
2. 2The days need not be continuous — visits spread across the year are added together.
3. 3Any part of a day counts as a day, but a continuous stay of 24 hours or less cannot count as more than one day — so an overnight trip that crosses midnight and lasts under 24 hours is one day, not two.
4. 4The count resets each year; it is not a rolling 12-month window.
5. 5183 days or more satisfies the day-count part of the test. Day 183 is the trigger, not day 184.

Because the threshold is 183 or more rather than more than 183, Maryland bites one day earlier than New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. If you track several states, do not assume the same line.

Examples

Example 1 — statutory resident (both conditions met)

You rent a Baltimore apartment all year and are physically in Maryland for 200 days. You hold a place of abode for more than six months and are present 183 days or more, so you are a statutory resident and must file a full-year resident return, reporting income from all sources.

Example 2 — over the days, but no abode

You work on a long Maryland project for 190 days, staying in hotels the whole time and keeping no place to live in the state. You meet the day count, but with no place of abode maintained for more than six months the statutory test is not met — though you should still check whether Maryland is your domicile.

Example 3 — a vacation home, under the day count

You own a furnished vacation home in Ocean City that is available all year, but you visit only 150 days. Under AR 37, a vacation home does not make you a resident unless you are physically present 183 days or more, so the statutory test is not met. At 183 days, it would be.

Exceptions & edge cases

• Domicile on the last day of the year. If Maryland is your domicile on the last day of the taxable year, you are a resident regardless of days. Military personnel and others domiciled in Maryland who are stationed or working elsewhere, including abroad, keep their Maryland residence unless they establish a new domicile elsewhere.
• Part-year moves. If you move into Maryland intending to be domiciled there, or leave with the bona fide intention to remain permanently outside it, you are a resident for the part of the year you lived in Maryland. Return within six months of leaving and there is a rebuttable presumption that you never intended to leave permanently.
• Reciprocal agreements. Residents of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia who work in Maryland are generally exempt from Maryland tax on wages, subject to the terms of each agreement. Except for West Virginia, AR 37 says the agreements do not apply to anyone physically present in the non-domicile state for 183 days or more in the taxable year.
• Temporary lodging. Hotels and short stays on a single project are hard to describe as a place of abode maintained for more than six months.

Common misconceptions

• "Maryland uses more than 183 days, like New York." No — Maryland's line is 183 days or more. Day 183 counts.
• "Staying under 183 days means I'm safe." Only from the statutory test. Domicile on the last day of the year can still make you a Maryland resident with any number of days.
• "Owning a Maryland vacation home makes me a resident." Not by itself — the Comptroller says a vacation home counts only if you are also present 183 days or more.
• "Only my Maryland income is taxed." Residents are taxed on income from all sources; being taxed on Maryland-source income only is the nonresident treatment.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Maryland Code, Tax-General §10-101(k) — Definition of "resident"
• Comptroller of Maryland — Administrative Release No. 37, Domicile and Residency
• Comptroller of Maryland — 2025 Resident Tax Booklet (Who is a resident?)