Physical presence test (foreign earned income exclusion): how to count your 330 days
The physical presence test is one way to qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. It asks for 330 full days in a foreign country or countries within any 12 consecutive months. A full day is a whole midnight-to-midnight day, so the days you travel are usually lost.
The rule
You meet the physical presence test if you are physically present in a foreign country or countries 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months including some part of the year at issue. The 330 qualifying days do not have to be consecutive.
Source: IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion: physical presence test
The test is "based only on how long you stay in a foreign country or countries", according to the IRS, and it "does not depend on the kind of residence you establish, your intentions about returning to the United States, or the nature and purpose of your stay abroad".
What counts as a day
A full day is a period of 24 consecutive hours, beginning and ending at midnight. You must spend the full day in a foreign country or countries for that day to be counted. When you leave the United States to go to a foreign country or when you return to the United States from a foreign country, the time you spend on, or over international waters does not count as time in a foreign country.
Source: IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion: physical presence test
The IRS adds rules for travel:
- Passing over a foreign country: "If, in traveling from the United States to a foreign country, you pass over a foreign country before midnight of the day you leave, the first day you can count toward the 330-day total is the day following the day you leave the United States."
- Moving between foreign countries: "You can move about from one place to another in a foreign country or to another foreign country without losing full days; but if any part of your travel is not within a foreign country or countries and takes 24 hours or more, you will lose full days."
- Transit through the US: "If you are in transit between two points outside the United States and are physically present in the United States for less than 24 hours, you are not treated as present in the United States during the transit. You are treated as traveling over areas not within any foreign country."
Its examples, with the day that counts:
| Journey (from the IRS page) | What the IRS says (in quotation marks), and what follows from it |
|---|---|
| Leave the US for France by air on June 10. Arrive in France at 9:00 a.m. on June 11. | "Your first full day in France is June 12." June 10 and June 11 are not full days in France. |
| Leave the US by air at 9:30 a.m. on June 10 for Spain. Pass over part of France at 11:00 p.m. on June 10. Arrive in Spain at 12:30 a.m. on June 11. | "Your first full day in a foreign country is June 11." June 10 is not counted. |
| Leave London by air at 11 p.m. on July 6. Arrive in Stockholm at 5 a.m. on July 7. | "Your trip takes less than 24 hours, and you lose no full days." |
| Leave Norway by ship at 10 p.m. on July 6. Arrive in Portugal at 6 a.m. on July 8. | The travel is not within a foreign country and takes more than 24 hours, so "you lose as full days July 6, 7, and 8". "If you remain in Portugal, your next full day in a foreign country is July 9." |
Days spent abroad count "for any reason, so long as your tax home is in a foreign country".
How to choose the 12-month period
The IRS lists four rules:
A 12-month period can begin with any day of the month. It ends the day before the same calendar day, 12 months later.
A 12-month period must be made up of consecutive months. Any 12-month period can be used if the 330 days in a foreign country fall within that period.
You do not have to begin a 12-month period with your first full day in a foreign country or to end it with the day you leave. You can choose the 12-month period that gives you the greatest exclusion.
In determining whether the 12-month period falls within a longer stay in the foreign country, 12-month periods can overlap one another.
Source: IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion: physical presence test
The period must include "some part of the year at issue". It does not have to be the calendar year.
Worked example
The IRS gives this example on the same page:
You live, work, and have a tax home in New Zealand from January 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025, except that you spend 28 days in February 2024 and 28 days in February 2025 on vacation in the United States. You are present in New Zealand for at least 330 full days during each of the following two 12-month periods: January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024, and September 1, 2024- August 31, 2025. Your qualifying 12-month period for 2024 is January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024. For 2025, you may choose September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025, as your qualifying period.
Source: IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion: physical presence test
The arithmetic. The IRS does not show it; this is ours. It takes the 28 vacation days as the only days away and ignores the days of travel, so each figure is the most the period can hold:
| 12-month period | Days in the period | Days in the United States | Most full days in New Zealand |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 | 366 (2024 has 29 days in February) | 28 (February 2024) | 366 - 28 = 338, at least 330 |
| September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025 | 122 (September to December 2024) + 243 (January to August 2025) = 365 | 28 (February 2025) | 365 - 28 = 337, at least 330 |
The two periods overlap from September 1 to December 31, 2024, which the fourth rule above allows.
Common mistakes
- Counting the day you fly out or fly back. A full day is "24 consecutive hours, beginning and ending at midnight", and time "on, or over international waters does not count".
- Counting the day you arrive. In the IRS example, landing at 9:00 a.m. on June 11 makes June 12 the first full day.
- Counting a long crossing between foreign countries. Travel that is not within a foreign country and takes 24 hours or more loses full days (the Norway to Portugal example).
- Counting a short stop in the US as time abroad. The IRS treats a transit of less than 24 hours as travelling "over areas not within any foreign country", not as time in a foreign country.
- Assuming the 12 months must be a calendar year. The period can start on any day, and "You can choose the 12-month period that gives you the greatest exclusion."
- Assuming the 330 days must run together. The IRS says they "do not have to be consecutive".
- Assuming a good reason for missing days helps. The IRS says you do not meet the test with fewer than 330 full days "regardless of the reason for the failure, including illness, family problems, a vacation, or your employer's orders". The one exception it names is a waiver when you must leave a country "because of war, civil unrest, or similar adverse conditions in that country".
- Counting days spent in a country in breach of US law. The IRS says: "if you are present in a foreign country in violation of U.S. law, you will not be treated as physically present in a foreign country while you were in violation of the law."
Counts are not a verdict
Reaching 330 full days is not the whole test for the exclusion. The IRS says days abroad count "so long as your tax home is in a foreign country", and that your intentions about your stay abroad "are relevant in determining whether you meet the tax home test". This page counts days. It does not say whether you qualify for the exclusion or owe tax, and it is not tax advice.
Dayproven is an iPhone app that applies the physical presence test's full-day rule to a record kept on your phone, and shows where every day came from. It is coming to the App Store.