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Physical Presence Test calculator (330 days)
Days you were in the United States
Include the travel days at both ends. A day on which you set foot in the US — or spend hours in transit between countries — is not a full day in a foreign country, so a long weekend home usually costs four days, not two.
Enter the date you began living abroad.
How this calculation works
Section 911(d)(1)(B) lets a US citizen or resident with a foreign tax home claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion if they are physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months. Form 2555 Part III is where that period is declared.
Three things make this harder to count than it looks, and this tool handles each explicitly:
- Travel days are not full days. The 24-hour clock runs midnight to midnight, so both ends of a trip to the US are lost.
- The window is not the calendar year. Every possible 12-month period overlapping your tax year is evaluated, and the best one is reported — including periods that begin mid-month and run into the following year.
- Leap years change the span. Twelve consecutive months is a calendar span, not 365 days. A period containing 29 February is 366 days long, and treating it as 365 quietly costs a day at exactly the threshold where a day matters.
Overlapping trips are merged before counting, so a work trip and a family trip that share a weekend do not subtract that weekend twice.
Limitations
- This counts days. It does not test whether your tax home was in a foreign country, which is a separate and equally necessary requirement.
- Time over international waters is not modelled — you would need to exclude those days yourself by including them in a US trip range.
- Days in countries subject to US travel sanctions may not count toward the test.
- A result showing a window that has not yet finished is a projection based on you staying abroad, and is labelled as such.
Sources
- IRC §911(d)(1)(B) — bona fide residence and physical presence.
- IRS Form 2555 instructions, Part III (Taxpayers Qualifying Under Physical Presence Test).
- IRS Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad.
Common questions
What counts as a full day for the Physical Presence Test?
A full day is a complete 24-hour period, midnight to midnight, that you spend in a foreign country. A day on which you arrive in or depart from the United States is not a full day abroad, and neither is a day spent travelling over international waters between two foreign countries. This is why a short trip home costs more days than the trip itself lasts.
Does the 12-month period have to be the tax year?
No. The test is satisfied by 330 full days in any period of 12 consecutive months, and that period can begin on any day. It commonly straddles two calendar years. If the qualifying period covers only part of the tax year, the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is prorated for that part.
What happens if I miss 330 days?
Missing the day count does not automatically end the exclusion. The bona fide residence test is a separate route with no day threshold — it asks whether you were a genuine resident of a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that included an entire tax year. Many people who fail one test meet the other.
Do days in international waters count?
No. Time spent over or on international waters is not time in a foreign country. A day on a flight or a ship that passes through international waters is generally not a full day abroad, even when both the origin and the destination are foreign countries.
Does meeting the 330-day test mean I owe no US tax?
No. The Physical Presence Test is one requirement for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which applies to earned income only. Investment income, foreign pensions and PFIC holdings are unaffected, and self-employment tax is not removed by the exclusion. You also still have to file, and reporting obligations such as FBAR and Form 8938 are separate.
Next steps
Before you rely on this result
What would settle it, and what covers it
Documents or facts needed
- • Travel dates in and out of the United States
- • Passport stamps or flight records for the window
- • When foreign residence began
Where this leads
Simple · $299 — carries the qualifying window into Form 2555.
Also possible: Complex ($799). The cheapest route that covers your facts is the right one; a package never covers more than one tax year.
How to read a status
- Likely:
- The facts entered meet the published test; confirm the inputs before acting.
- Possible:
- Some facts point this way and others are missing; more information decides it.
- Needs review:
- These inputs leave it open; a person should look before filing.
- Not currently indicated:
- Nothing entered triggers it this year; a changed fact can change the answer.
- Outside supported scope:
- This item is routed to a professional for preparation.
Scope. Counts the days entered; days over international waters and partial days follow rules the count cannot see. This is a computation on the answers you gave, not individualized tax advice.
Tool: /tools/physical-presence-test
What changes the result
This answer changes if…
Whether the exclusion or the credit is the better route
- …your foreign income tax rate is above the U.S. rate on the same income — the foreign tax credit tends to leave no U.S. tax and carries excess credit forward; the exclusion cannot.
- …you were in the United States for more than 35 days in the twelve-month period — the physical-presence test for the exclusion is lost for that period.
- …the income is a pension, a distribution or investment income rather than earned income — the exclusion covers earned income only; the credit covers foreign tax on any category.
- …you claimed the exclusion in a prior year and now revoke it — a revocation locks the exclusion out for five years without IRS consent.
- …you have self-employment income — the exclusion does not reduce U.S. self-employment tax; a totalization certificate does.
Whether the 3.8% net investment income tax applies
- …your modified adjusted gross income is below the threshold for your filing status — the tax applies only to the lesser of net investment income and the excess over the threshold. Check it
- …you claim the foreign earned income exclusion — excluded wages are added back for the threshold test.
- …you rely on a treaty to credit foreign tax against this tax — the credit against the net investment income tax rests on a treaty article and on litigated positions, not on Form 1116.
- …a PFIC is under a QEF election — QEF inclusions enter net investment income only under a separate election (the 'section 1.1411-10(g)' election).
Each line names a fact that moves the result; what it moves to depends on the rest of your facts. Nothing here is a determination.
How Atamatax calculations are produced — the tests applied, statutory sources and review cadence — is documented in the methodology, and how the engine is validated in accuracy & review. Calculation fixes are recorded in the changelog.
Authorities cited
- IRC §911 — IRC §911 — Foreign earned income exclusion + housing exclusion/deduction
- IRS Form 2555 — About Form 2555 — Foreign Earned Income (FEIE + housing)
- IRS Publication 54 — About Publication 54 — Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad
Primary sources (Cornell Legal Information Institute for the US Code and CFR; IRS.gov for forms, procedures, and treaty documents). This page is general information, not individualized tax or legal advice.
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