Guides

The rules, in plain English.

Facts in these guides are injected from the rule data when the site is built — thresholds, counting conventions and sources are never copied by hand, so the app and this site cannot drift apart. We publish how we verify and version every rule.

Jurisdiction guides

Each of these is backed by a versioned rule with an official source and a verification date.

Canada

The Canadian sojourner rule, explained

How Canada's sojourner rule deems residence for the whole year, why part days count, and where factual residence sits outside the count.

Cyprus

Cyprus tax residency: the two routes, explained

How Cyprus's standard day-count test and its shorter alternative route work, what changed in 2026, and how Cyprus counts arrival and departure days.

France

French tax residence and the presence indicator, explained

Why France has no standalone day test: foyer, principal place of stay, work, and economic interests decide residence, with days as evidence.

Germany

German habitual abode and the six-month stay, explained

How Germany's habitual-abode test works: the unbroken stay, disregarded interruptions, retroactive effect, and why the dwelling test matters more.

India

Indian residential status: resident, RNOR and non-resident

How Indian residential status is decided across the 1 April to 31 March financial year, the two limbs, the NRI exceptions, and what RNOR is actually worth.

Ireland

Ireland's residence test, explained

How Ireland's two-limb residence test works: the single-year day count, the two-year aggregate, and the disregard for light years.

Italy

Italy's presence test, explained

How Italy's greater-part-of-the-year test counts days, why the threshold moves in a leap year, and what the 2024 change made explicit.

Malta

Malta's residence day count, explained

How Malta's day-count test works, why ordinary residence can arise from intent below the threshold, and what res-non-dom status changes.

New York

New York statutory residency, explained

New York taxes you as a resident on a day count plus a permanent place of abode. How the 183-day limb works, what an abode is, and why audits turn on evidence.

Portugal

Portuguese tax residence by presence, explained

How Portugal counts days toward tax residence: the overnight convention, the rolling 12-month window, and the home-availability question.

Spain

Spain's residence day count, explained

How Spain's day-count test works, why sporadic absences may still count as Spanish days, and what the whole-year effect means in practice.

Switzerland

Swiss residence by stay, explained

How Switzerland's contiguous-stay test works: the unbroken run, disregarded interruptions, and why working there shortens the threshold.

the Netherlands

Dutch tax residence without a day test, explained

The Netherlands has no statutory day-count test. Residence turns on durable home, family, work, and registration — days are evidence, not a verdict.

the Schengen area

The Schengen 90/180 rule, explained

How the Schengen short-stay limit actually counts your days, what resets it, and how to check your own allowance.

the United Kingdom

The UK Statutory Residence Test, explained

How the SRT decides UK tax residence: the midnight test, automatic tests, sufficient ties, and the deeming rule, in order.

the United States

The US Substantial Presence Test, explained

How the IRS Substantial Presence Test weights three years of US days in exact sixths, which days are excluded, and how to stay the right side of it.

United States

Substantial presence, the two routes to the foreign earned income exclusion, and the exceptions that override a day count.

United States

Australian resident for tax purposes: the four tests

The four statutory residency tests in ITAA 1936, how the ATO applies them under TR 2023/1, and why the proposed bright-line reform is still not law.

United States

Canada's departure tax, explained

How Canada's deemed disposition on emigration works: what is caught, what is excluded, the election to defer, Forms T1243 and T1161, and when residency ceases.

United States

Form 8840: the closer connection exception, explained

Who files Form 8840, the three conditions for the closer connection exception, when it is unavailable, the deadline, and what happens if you do not file.

United States

Puerto Rico Act 60 and the three residence tests

How Act 60 works: the presence, tax home and closer connection tests behind bona fide residence in Puerto Rico, what disqualifies you, and the IRS scrutiny.

United States

The bona fide residence test, explained

How the IRS bona fide residence test works, how it differs from the physical presence test, and why a full uninterrupted tax year abroad is the threshold.

United States

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, explained

How the foreign earned income exclusion works, the two qualifying tests, the housing exclusion, and why days over international waters are not foreign days.

United States

US expat taxes: the day counts that decide them

A map of the US tax tests that turn on where you were: substantial presence, the two FEIE routes, state residency, and the exceptions that override them.

US state residency

Leaving a high-tax state, establishing a new one, and the workday rules that follow you regardless of where you sit.

US state residency

California residency rules, explained

California has no bright-line day test. Residency turns on domicile and closest connections, with a narrow safe harbour for employment absences.

US state residency

How to become a Florida resident

The steps that establish Florida domicile, and why the state you left must also accept the move. Residency audits are decided on day evidence.

US state residency

Nonresident state tax: when you owe a state you do not live in

How states tax nonresidents on sourced income, how workdays allocate wages by day count, and how credits for taxes paid to other states work.

US state residency

The convenience of the employer rule, explained

New York and several other states tax a nonresident's workdays by reference to the employer's office, not to where the employee actually was.

US state residency

The states with no income tax, and what residency means in each

Florida, Texas, Nevada and the other states with no personal income tax set no residency test of their own. The burden runs the other way.

United Kingdom

Leaving, arriving, and the reliefs that turn on where your days fall.

United Kingdom

Form P85: telling HMRC you have left the UK

What form P85 is, who files it and who should not, what it does for your tax refund and your non-residence record, and what happens after you send it.

United Kingdom

Is there a UK exit tax? What leaving actually triggers

The UK has no general exit tax on individuals. What governs leaving is the Statutory Residence Test, split-year treatment and temporary non-residence.

United Kingdom

Overseas workday relief and the workday record

How overseas workday relief works after April 2025, who is eligible, how earnings are apportioned, and why per-day workday location is the hard part.

United Kingdom

Split-year treatment: the eight cases, explained

How UK split-year treatment works: why it only applies to a resident year, the eight statutory cases, the priority order, and the day counts behind each.

United Kingdom

The four-year FIG regime, explained

The foreign income and gains regime replaced non-dom status from April 2025: who qualifies, what it exempts, how the residence clock runs, and year five.

Relocation

Where people move, and what maintaining the new status actually requires.

Relocation

Andorra tax residency: active and passive permits compared

Andorra runs two residence permits with materially different presence obligations, and a low but real income tax underneath both. What each one asks of you.

Relocation

Countries with no income tax, and what it takes to keep the status

The jurisdictions that levy no personal income tax, the territorial systems wrongly listed beside them, and the presence each expects of a resident.

Relocation

Monaco residency, and what the carte de séjour asks of you

No personal income tax for residents, except French nationals. The carte de séjour, the bank attestation, and the presence that renewal actually turns on.

Relocation

Paraguay residency, and the day count that is not there

Paraguay asks almost nothing of your presence, which is the appeal and the weakness. What the 2022 law changed, and what a tax residence there really rests on.

Relocation

The Italian flat tax for new residents, and the day count under it

Article 24-bis substitutes a fixed annual charge for tax on foreign income. The figure has risen twice. The entry condition is Italian tax residence.

Relocation

The Panama Friendly Nations Visa after the 2021 reform

Executive Decree 197 rebuilt the Friendly Nations route: economic solvency, two-year provisional residence, and a tax residence that is counted separately.

Relocation

The UAE Tax Residency Certificate, explained

How the UAE decides tax residence for individuals, the three routes into it, and what a Tax Residency Certificate actually proves — and does not.

Residay counts days everywhere else too: see the full coverage table of advisory presence indicators for every other country.