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You don't say what type of residence you have in France (10 years? permanent?) or whether you have an address in France or whether you have ANY address. (I don't know whether French law is capable of understanding  itinerant.

There are conditions that can cause a residence permit to expire after different lengths of absence in months and years, plus you are Italian and so are part of the EU.

The best advice would probably be not to accept any advice from this forum and to instead contact a French consulate in South Africa.

@AARO health

Thanks for your reply.

Permanent residence as I worked 40 years in France, ence my pension.

I have contacted the French Embassy, the reply was that they don't handle tax issues. ...

I didn't understand this as a tax issue. You seemed to be asking if you could lose your residence status:  I would like to know if I can stay outside of France for a longer period than 6 months without loosing my status as a resident concerning the Administration.

SOMEBODY is going to want the tax on your pension. For many people that would depend upon where they live and what any treaty between that country and France has to say about it. For example, under the US-France tax treaty, the PAYING country (France) gets the tax. With other countrie it might be the country of residence. (There would also be a question of liability for social taxes on the pension if one were residing outside France.)

Tax specialists I know seem to agree everybody has one tax domicile and that may be decided by the set of tiebreaking rules in the treaty when there are multiple residences or, in the end, by a joint committee.