How can I obtain my time in USA information for tax purposes?
I am a US citizen living abroad. They no longer stamp your passport when coming and going from the US and I need to know the dates I was in country for taxes. Is there a way to find out this information?
Best Answer
Unfortunately, there is no super quick way.
You could make a request under the Privacy Act/Freedom of Information Act to obtain your records from Customs and Border Protection. The relevant webpage for CBP records specifically lists "Information Regarding Entry and Exit" and "Passenger Name Record (PNR) (Travel Industry Reservation Data)" as types of records you can request. This should give you what you're looking for (though note that some exits through the Mexican or Canadian land borders may not always be recorded, so you'll need to fill in the gaps for any such trips). Note that CBP has a significant records request backlog, to the extent that they've been sued for failure to respond to many such requests. It looks like they've managed to reduce the backlog since then, but I would not count on a rapid response.
If CBP can't respond quickly enough, you might be able to reconstruct this information from the airlines. If you stick with one airline (or one alliance), your frequent flyer account will show you the all flights you've taken, and you can usually access your statements online. With multiple airlines, you'll need to check the statements for each one. You could also gather information from your email account (confirmations of flight ticket purchases), credit card statements (purchases in various countries), discarded boarding passes in the bottom of your bag, crumpled up receipts in your wallet, etc...
One note for future readers is that that non-citizens who were in the US as non-immigrant visitors might, depending on the details of their status and other particulars, be able to get this information from the I-94 website.
Many expats who may be close to physical presence thresholds for tax purposes will keep their own records and retain evidence from the airlines to make this process easier. If you might be in a similar situation in the future, it's probably a good idea to start your own log.
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Can I access my IRS records online?
You can access your federal tax account through a secure login at IRS.gov/account. View the amount you owe, along with details of your balance, your payment history, tax records, and key tax return information from your most recent tax return as originally filed.What counts as a day in the US for tax purposes?
The IRS generally considers someone to have been present in the U.S. on a given day if they spent any part of a day there. But there are some exceptions. Days that do not count as days of presence include: Days that you commute to work in the U.S. from a residence in Canada or Mexico if you do so regularly.What do you need for tax time?
Children's details including date of birth. List of all income, including Income Statements, rental income, interest and dividends and any foreign income. List of all expenses, including work-related expenses, donations, self-education expenses and the cost of managing tax affairs.How do you calculate 183 days in America?
183 days during the 3-year period that includes the current year and the 2 years immediately before that, counting:Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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