Residency

An institutional unit is resident in a country when it has a center of economic interest in the economic territory of that country. It is said to have a center of economic interest when there exists some location--dwelling, place of production or other premises--within the economic territory on, or from, which it engages, and intends to continue to engage, in economic activities and transactions on a significant scale either indefinitely or over a finite but long period of time. In most cases, a long period of time may be interpreted as one year or more, although this is suggested only as a guideline and not as an inflexible rule (art.4.15).

Thus, residence is not based on nationality or legal criteria (although it may be similar to the concepts of residence used for exchange control, tax or other purposes in many countries). Some aspects of residence:

(a)   The residence of individual persons is determined by that of the household of which they form part and not by their place of work. All members of the same household have the same residence as the household itself, even though they may cross borders to work or otherwise spend periods of time abroad. If they work and reside abroad so long that they acquire a center of economic interest abroad, they cease to be members of their original households;

(b)   Unincorporated enterprises that are not quasi-corporations are not separate institutional units from their owners and, therefore, have the same residence as their owners;

(c)   Corporations and NPIs may normally be expected to have a center of economic interest in the country in which they are legally constituted and registered. Corporations may be resident in countries different from their shareholders and subsidiary corporations may be resident in different countries from their parent corporations. When a corporation, or unincorporated enterprise, maintains a branch, office or production site in another country in order to engage in a significant amount of production over a long period of time but without creating a subsidiary corporation for the purpose, the branch, office or site is considered to be a quasi-corporation (i.e., separate institutional unit) resident in the country in which it is located (see paragraphs 14.22 to 14.28 of chapter XIV);

d)   Owners of land and buildings in the economic territory of a country are deemed always to have a center of economic interest in that country, even if they do not engage in other economic activities or transactions in the country. All land and buildings are therefore owned by residents (see paragraph 14.14 of chapter XIV).(art. 4.16)