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    <title>DEV Community: Countly - Country Days Tracker</title>
    <description>The latest articles on DEV Community by Countly - Country Days Tracker (@countlytracker).</description>
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      <title>DEV Community: Countly - Country Days Tracker</title>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker</link>
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    <item>
      <title>UAE tax residency: the 90- and 183-day rules</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/uae-tax-residency-the-90-and-183-day-rules-2701</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/uae-tax-residency-the-90-and-183-day-rules-2701</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;The UAE charges no personal income tax — which is exactly why so many people want to be tax resident there. The catch is that residency is settled by a day count.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Why a tax-free country still counts your days
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The UAE does not levy a personal income tax on salaries or wages, so the appeal is obvious for anyone who can choose where to base themselves. But "I live in Dubai now" is not, by itself, a tax status. To be treated as a UAE tax resident — to obtain a Tax Residency Certificate, to claim relief under a double-tax treaty, or to help show another country that you have genuinely left its tax net — you have to meet criteria the UAE set out in &lt;a href="https://mof.gov.ae/en/news/following-cabinet-decision-85-of-2022/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022&lt;/a&gt;, in force since 1 March 2023.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most of those criteria come down to a single number: how many days you were physically inside the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Three ways to become a UAE tax resident
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Under Cabinet Decision 85, an individual is a UAE tax resident if they meet &lt;strong&gt;any one&lt;/strong&gt; of three tests — summarised by the &lt;a href="https://mof.gov.ae/en/news/following-cabinet-decision-85-of-2022/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;UAE Ministry of Finance&lt;/a&gt; and set out in technical guidance from &lt;a href="https://www.ey.com/en_gl/technical/tax-alerts/uae-issues-additional-guidance-on-determination-of-tax-residency" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;EY&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"&gt;&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Route&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Days in the UAE&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Extra conditions&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Centre of life&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;none specified&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The UAE is your usual or principal place of residence &lt;strong&gt;and&lt;/strong&gt; the centre of your financial and personal interests&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;183-day rule&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;183+ days&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Physical presence over a consecutive 12-month period&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;90-day rule&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;90+ days&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;In a consecutive 12-month period, &lt;strong&gt;and&lt;/strong&gt; you are a UAE national, a UAE residence-permit holder, or a GCC national, &lt;strong&gt;and&lt;/strong&gt; you have a permanent home in the UAE &lt;strong&gt;or&lt;/strong&gt; carry on employment or a business there&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Two of the three are explicit day-count tests. Even the "centre of life" route, which sets no minimum, is far easier to defend if you can show where you actually spent your time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Note the window. The 183- and 90-day thresholds are measured over ==a rolling, consecutive 12-month period — not a tidy calendar year==, and the days do not have to be consecutive. That makes the count harder to keep in your head than an annual tally, because the relevant year is always sliding forward.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  How a "day" is counted
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The detail that trips people up sits in &lt;a href="https://mof.gov.ae/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Ministerial-Decision-27-of-2023-of-Tax-Residency.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Ministerial Decision No. 27 of 2023&lt;/a&gt;, which clarifies the counting. All days, or &lt;strong&gt;parts&lt;/strong&gt; of a day, on which you are physically present in the UAE are counted. As EY summarises, "all days or parts of a day in which an individual is physically present in the UAE will be counted as UAE days." So both your arrival day and your departure day are UAE days — and even a long layover at a UAE airport can add one to the tally.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;==Any part of a day you are physically present counts as a full UAE day — arrival and departure days included.==&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is one narrow relief: a day spent in the UAE because of an &lt;em&gt;exceptional circumstance&lt;/em&gt; — an unforeseeable event beyond your control that happens while you are already in the country and stops you leaving as planned — may be disregarded. It is an exception, not a planning tool.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The definitions behind the tests matter too. A permanent place of residence is a home continuously available to you (the authorities point to a title deed or a tenancy contract as evidence); the centre of financial and personal interests is the place where your personal and economic ties are closest. If you want the underlying mechanics of part-days and presence across different regimes, see &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/what-counts-as-a-day-of-presence" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;What counts as a 'day' for visas and tax&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Domestic residency is not the end of the story
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Being a UAE tax resident under these rules is a &lt;em&gt;domestic&lt;/em&gt; status. It does not automatically switch off tax residency somewhere else. Many countries run their own presence-and-ties tests, and you can be resident in two places at once — at which point a double-tax treaty's tie-breaker decides which one prevails. We unpack that in &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/dual-tax-residency-tie-breaker-rules" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Dual tax residency and the treaty tie-breaker&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is a practical wrinkle, too. A Tax Residency Certificate issued for treaty purposes generally rests on the 183-day route rather than the lighter 90-day domestic test — so the day count you can actually evidence may decide which certificate you can obtain. Requirements vary and change; confirm the current position with the &lt;a href="https://tax.gov.ae/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Federal Tax Authority&lt;/a&gt; before you rely on any of this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The whole thing rests on a number you can prove
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Strip away the labels and UAE tax residency is an exercise in counting days against a window that keeps moving. Ninety or 183 days, in any consecutive 12 months, where every part-day counts and the days need not be consecutive — and where the burden is on you to evidence them with entry and exit records. People who reconstruct that from memory at certificate time, or when another country asks where they really were, tend to guess, and guesses are easy to check against border data.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the quiet problem Countly was built for. It keeps an exact, automatic, on-device record of which days you spent in each country and when you crossed each border — the contemporaneous log that a rolling 90/183-day test, or a tax authority on the other side, will eventually ask you to produce. No account, no cloud, no analytics; just the count, on your phone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. UAE rules can change and your situation is specific — check the UAE Ministry of Finance and Federal Tax Authority, and take professional advice.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>uaetaxresidency</category>
      <category>183dayrule</category>
      <category>90dayrule</category>
      <category>dubai</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How long can a UK citizen stay in Europe?</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:08:52 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/how-long-can-a-uk-citizen-stay-in-europe-5ja</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/how-long-can-a-uk-citizen-stay-in-europe-5ja</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;For decades a British passport was a key to the whole continent. Since Brexit, it comes with a 90-day cap.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The status that changed in 2021
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When free movement ended after the Brexit transition period closed on 31 December 2020, UK nationals became &lt;strong&gt;third-country nationals&lt;/strong&gt; for short visits to the EU — the same category as visitors from the United States, Canada or Australia. They keep one real advantage: under &lt;a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/visa-policy_en" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Annex II of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806&lt;/a&gt;, British citizens are visa-exempt, so no Schengen visa is needed for a short trip. What they no longer have is the right to simply stay.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(One exception: UK nationals who were lawfully resident in an EU country before the end of 2020 may hold Withdrawal Agreement rights — a separate regime with its own rules. Check the official guidance for the country where you live.)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The rule: 90 days in any 180
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The UK government states it plainly. ==Your total stay in the Schengen area must be no more than 90 days in every 180 days, and "it does not matter how many countries you visit."== The &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/travel-to-eu-schengen-area" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;official guidance&lt;/a&gt; adds that "the 180-day period keeps rolling."&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So the 90 days are a single shared pool across every Schengen country at once. Hopping Paris to Lisbon to Vienna does not reset anything and does not start a fresh count — for this rule the Area is one space. The mechanics of that ever-shifting window are worth understanding in full, and we cover them in &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/schengen-90-180-rule-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;the Schengen 90/180 rule, explained&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  How to count it, the official way
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;gov.uk gives a four-step method for any planned trip:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Take the date you plan to &lt;strong&gt;leave&lt;/strong&gt; the Schengen area on your next trip.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Count back 180 days&lt;/strong&gt; from that date to find the start of the window.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Add up the days you have &lt;strong&gt;already&lt;/strong&gt; spent in Schengen inside that window, then add the days you plan to spend on the next trip.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Check the total is &lt;strong&gt;not more than 90&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Two counting rules catch people out: the day you arrive and the day you leave each count as a &lt;strong&gt;full day&lt;/strong&gt;, whatever the time on the clock. A flight that lands at 23:50 still spends that whole date inside the Area.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What counts — and what doesn't
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"&gt;&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Counts toward your 90 days&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Does not count&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Holidays, city breaks, weekends away&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Time in &lt;strong&gt;Ireland&lt;/strong&gt; (not in Schengen)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Business trips and conferences&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Days under a national long-stay (type D) visa&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;House-hunting and second-home visits&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Days on a residence permit you hold&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every short visit counts, whatever its purpose. But the rules, gov.uk notes, "do not apply to travelling and working in Ireland" — Britain and Ireland share a Common Travel Area, and Ireland is outside Schengen. And time spent under a national long-stay visa or a residence permit is a separate authorisation that is excluded from the 90-day short-stay count.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  If you want to stay longer than 90 days
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ninety days is the ceiling for visa-free visiting, not a target you can top up by stepping out and back in. To stay longer — to retire to Spain, keep a second home in France, or work anywhere in the Area — gov.uk advises that you "may need a visa or permit," and points you to each country's own entry requirements.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In practice that usually means a &lt;strong&gt;national long-stay visa or a residence permit&lt;/strong&gt; issued by the specific country where you intend to stay. ==Those rules are country-specific, they change, and they are not interchangeable across the Area== — so check the official immigration guidance for that one country rather than a general rule of thumb.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The border is now digital
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The old defence — a tired officer squinting at a smudged stamp — is gone. The EU's &lt;strong&gt;Entry/Exit System (EES)&lt;/strong&gt; began its progressive rollout on 12 October 2025 and records each entry and exit electronically, working out the remaining days automatically; we walk through it in &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/ees-entry-exit-system-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;EES explained&lt;/a&gt;. Separately, visa-exempt travellers — UK citizens included — will eventually need an &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/etias-explained-eu-travel-authorisation" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;ETIAS travel authorisation&lt;/a&gt;, an online pre-clearance that is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; a visa and does &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; add to your 90 days.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The practical effect is simple: your crossings are now logged, and the arithmetic that decides whether you are over the limit is done by a database that does not round down.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Keep your own count
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The hard part of the 90/180 rule has never been the number. It is the rolling window, and remembering a forgotten long weekend from four months ago that is still sitting inside it. That is exactly the kind of record Countly keeps for you: it holds the rolling 180-day window on your phone, counts arrival and departure days the way the rule does, and tells you the date a day "falls off" so you have room again — privately, with no account and nothing uploaded. The border now keeps a precise ledger of your crossings; the cheapest insurance is to keep one of your own, and to know the number before you book the trip.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;General information, not legal or immigration advice. Rules vary by country and change — confirm the current requirements with official sources before you travel.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>schengen90180</category>
      <category>ukcitizens</category>
      <category>brexit</category>
      <category>thirdcountrynationals</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The UK 180-day rule for indefinite leave to remain</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:11:06 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/the-uk-180-day-rule-for-indefinite-leave-to-remain-215m</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/the-uk-180-day-rule-for-indefinite-leave-to-remain-215m</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;The UK is not in the Schengen Area, and settlement here does not turn on whether you feel at home. To stay permanently, the Home Office counts the days you spent &lt;em&gt;away&lt;/em&gt; — and it counts them to the day.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Settlement is measured by your absences
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) — often called settlement — is the status that lets you live in the UK without a time limit. Most residence tests around the world count the days you were present; for ILR the UK does the opposite and counts the days you were absent. The headline limit is easy to state and easy to trip over: ==you must not spend more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period of your qualifying residence== (&lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/indefinite-leave-to-remain-tier-2-t2-skilled-worker-visa/time-uk" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;GOV.UK&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is a separate clock from the others we write about. It is not the &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/schengen-90-180-rule-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Schengen 90/180 rule&lt;/a&gt; — which, since the UK left the EU, it is not part of — and it is not the &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/uk-statutory-residence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;UK Statutory Residence Test&lt;/a&gt; that decides where you pay tax. Settlement has its own window, its own arithmetic, and its own forms.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The qualifying period usually runs five years
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most routes to ILR — the Skilled Worker visa among them — require a continuous qualifying period of &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/indefinite-leave-to-remain-tier-2-t2-skilled-worker-visa/time-uk" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;five years&lt;/a&gt;. A few are shorter; some investor routes can be two or three years. Whatever its length, the 180-day limit applies throughout the period, not merely in the run-up to your application.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  "Rolling" is the word that catches people out
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Until 11 January 2018, absences were measured in consecutive 12-month blocks counting back from the application date. Since then the Home Office measures them &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/indefinite-leave-to-remain-calculating-continuous-period-in-uk/indefinite-leave-to-remain-calculating-continuous-period-in-uk-accessible" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;on a rolling basis&lt;/a&gt;: it can take &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; 12-month window inside your qualifying period, and if a single one exceeds 180 days, your continuous residence is treated as broken.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That subtly changes the maths. Two long trips sitting on either side of a calendar-year line used to fall into separate blocks; on a rolling basis they can land inside the same 12 months and add together. Two further points from the same official guidance:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Whole days only.&lt;/strong&gt; "You must only include whole days in this calculation. Part day absences, for example, less than 24 hours, are not counted."&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Almost everything counts.&lt;/strong&gt; Business trips, holidays and family visits all count toward the 180 days unless a specific exception applies.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  When a long absence can be excused
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The rules leave room for genuine misfortune. Caseworkers may exercise discretion where an excessive absence was for serious or compelling reasons — the guidance names the serious illness of the applicant or a close relative, a conflict, or a natural disaster such as a volcanic eruption or tsunami. You have to prove it, with a letter setting out the reason and supporting documents. It is an exception, not a loophole.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Settlement can still lapse after you have it
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;ILR is durable, not unconditional. ==Indefinite leave to remain lapses if you spend two continuous years outside the UK== (&lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/returning-resident-visa" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;GOV.UK&lt;/a&gt;). Holders of settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme get a longer window — five years, or four for Swiss citizens — but the principle holds: stay away too long in one stretch and the status you earned can fall away, leaving a paid Returning Resident visa application, and proof of strong ongoing ties, as the route back.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Do not confuse settlement with citizenship
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;ILR is the step before British citizenship, and the two use &lt;em&gt;different&lt;/em&gt; absence tests. Naturalisation generally allows no more than &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-indefinite-leave-to-remain/eligibility" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;450 days outside the UK across the five years&lt;/a&gt; before you apply, and no more than 90 days in the final 12 months. Clearing the ILR test does not automatically clear the citizenship one.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"&gt;&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Indefinite leave to remain&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;British citizenship&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;What is counted&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Days absent&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Days absent&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The limit&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;≤ 180 days in any rolling 12 months&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;≤ 450 days over 5 years; ≤ 90 in the final 12&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The window&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;A continuous qualifying period (often 5 years)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The 5 years before applying&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;How it is read&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Every rolling 12-month window&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Totals across the period&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Both tests, and the contrast above, are explored further in &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/citizenship-physical-presence-day-count" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;why citizenship forms ask for every trip abroad&lt;/a&gt;. Thresholds and routes change, so confirm the current numbers on GOV.UK before relying on them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The count is only as good as your record
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every one of these tests has the same quiet requirement: you must know, and be able to show, the exact dates you left and returned — often reaching back five years or more. The Home Office can check what you declare against entry and exit records, so a generous round number in your favour will not do.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most people do not keep that record as they travel. They rebuild it near application time from boarding passes, calendars and a passport whose stamps may be faint, missing, or — for trips inside the Common Travel Area — never made at all. That reconstruction is exactly where a borderline case goes wrong, as our guide to &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/how-to-count-days-abroad" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;counting days abroad without losing the plot&lt;/a&gt; explains.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the unglamorous job &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Countly&lt;/a&gt; does on your phone. It keeps an exact, private, per-country record of your days and border crossings — automatically, with no account and nothing leaving the device — so that when a settlement form, a caseworker, or a rolling 12-month window asks how many days you were outside the UK, the answer is already written down rather than dredged up from memory.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is general information, not legal or immigration advice; UK immigration rules vary by route and change over time, so confirm the current requirements on official GOV.UK sources or with a qualified adviser before you apply.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>indefiniteleavetoremain</category>
      <category>ukimmigration</category>
      <category>180dayrule</category>
      <category>settlement</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The 330-day rule for Americans working abroad</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:09:49 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/the-330-day-rule-for-americans-working-abroad-5g7a</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/the-330-day-rule-for-americans-working-abroad-5g7a</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;For Americans, a remote job abroad comes with a quiet tax break — but only if you can count to 330.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  A rare US tax break, earned by days
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The United States taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, wherever they live. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) is one of the few escape hatches: it lets a qualifying person keep a slice of foreign wages or self-employment income out of the US tax base. For the 2025 tax year the maximum is $130,000 per person — up from $126,500 in 2024, and rising to $132,900 in 2026 — and the figure is adjusted annually for inflation (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/figuring-the-foreign-earned-income-exclusion" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To claim it you need three things at once, per the IRS: foreign earned income, a tax home in a foreign country, and either status as a bona fide resident of a foreign country for an entire tax year, or 330 full days of physical presence abroad (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). For people who move around — contractors, remote employees, perpetual travellers — the bona fide residence route is often out of reach, because it asks for an uninterrupted home abroad across a whole tax year. That leaves the physical presence test, and the physical presence test is arithmetic.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What the physical presence test actually counts
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The rule: you must be ==physically present in a foreign country or countries for 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months== (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion-physical-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). Three phrases in that sentence do most of the work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"Full days."&lt;/strong&gt; A full day is "a period of 24 consecutive hours, beginning and ending at midnight," and the entire 24 hours must be spent in a foreign country to count (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion-physical-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). The 2025 Form 2555 instructions say it the same way: "A full day means the 24-hour period that starts at midnight" (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2555" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). The day you fly out of the US, and the day you fly back, are usually not full days abroad.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"Foreign country."&lt;/strong&gt; Time over international waters does not count. The IRS is explicit: "the time you spend on, or over international waters does not count as time in a foreign country" (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion-physical-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). A long-haul flight or a cruise between two countries can quietly burn days you assumed were safe.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"Any period of 12 consecutive months."&lt;/strong&gt; The window does not have to be the calendar year. It "can begin with any day of the month," and you may "choose the 12-month period that gives you the greatest exclusion" (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion-physical-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). The 330 days need not be consecutive either — you can leave and return, as long as the days abroad add up inside one rolling 12-month frame.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That last point is the one most people get wrong. The test is a sliding window, not a tidy January-to-December tally. The clock moves with you — structurally the same idea as the Schengen Area's rolling 180-day window, even though the two regimes have nothing else in common.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The 35-day margin, and why it is thinner than it looks
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A 12-month period holds 365 days. Subtract 330 and you are left with 35 days that can be spent in the United States — or over the ocean, or otherwise not in a foreign country — across an entire year. That is the whole budget: a fortnight home for the holidays, a wedding, a work trip to head office, and the margin is gone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The threshold is also hard-edged. Fall short of 330 full days in your chosen window and you simply do not meet the physical presence test for that window — there is no partial credit for 329. When you qualify for only part of a tax year, the maximum is prorated by your qualifying days. The IRS gives the formula directly: someone with 140 qualifying days in 2025 has a maximum exclusion of (140 ÷ 365) × $130,000 = $49,863 (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/figuring-the-foreign-earned-income-exclusion" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). Every qualifying day, in other words, is worth real money.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Who can use it, and what it covers
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The physical presence test is open to both US citizens and US resident aliens with a foreign tax home (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/frequently-asked-questions-about-international-individual-tax-matters" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). The bona fide residence alternative is narrower — generally available to US citizens, and to resident aliens who are nationals of a country with a US income-tax treaty. Either way the exclusion is not automatic: you elect it by filing Form 2555 with your return (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2555" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). And it reaches only earned income — wages, salary, professional and self-employment fees — not dividends, interest, capital gains, or a pension.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One caution worth stating plainly: US tax rules are detailed and they change. The foreign housing exclusion, self-employment tax, and state filing all interact with the FEIE in ways a single article cannot cover. Treat the figures here as the current federal numbers and confirm your own case with the IRS or a cross-border tax professional.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Why the count is the whole game
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Strip away the jargon and the FEIE rewards one thing: an exact record of which days you spent in which country, inside the right twelve-month window. Reconstruct it from memory at filing time and you are guessing at a number that decides thousands of dollars — and if the IRS asks, the &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/proving-your-days-burden-of-proof" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;burden of proving where you were&lt;/a&gt; falls on you. The mirror image — when the US begins taxing a foreigner for days spent inside the country — runs on the same kind of day-count (&lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/us-substantial-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;the Substantial Presence Test&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the quiet job Countly does. It counts your days in each country automatically, on your phone, and keeps a private, contemporaneous record of every border crossing — so when a 12-month window has to add up to 330, you are reading a number, not reconstructing one.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by country and change; check the official IRS guidance and a qualified adviser for your own situation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>foreignearnedincomeexclusion</category>
      <category>physicalpresencetest</category>
      <category>usexpattax</category>
      <category>330dayrule</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Who has to prove where you were?</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2026 08:10:58 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/who-has-to-prove-where-you-were-2pfh</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/who-has-to-prove-where-you-were-2pfh</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Knowing the rule is only half the job. When a tax authority or a border officer doubts your day count, you are usually the one who has to prove it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The same question, asked in reverse
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most of what we write here is about &lt;em&gt;counting&lt;/em&gt; — the &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/schengen-90-180-rule-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Schengen 90/180 rule&lt;/a&gt;, the 183-day tax tests, the physical-presence thresholds for residence and citizenship. But counting assumes you already know the dates. The harder moment comes later, when someone official asks you to &lt;em&gt;demonstrate&lt;/em&gt; them — and disagrees with your figure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That is the burden of proof, and across both tax and immigration it tends to rest on the individual, not the authority. The exact rules vary by country, but the pattern is consistent: the state records that you were somewhere, and asks you to account for the rest.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  In tax, you usually carry it
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When a residence position is challenged, the taxpayer is generally the one who has to make the case. In the UK, ==in a tax appeal it is normally the taxpayer who bears the burden of proof, to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities== — more likely than not, rather than beyond reasonable doubt (&lt;a href="https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/tax-checks-and-disputes/appealing-tax-decision/appealing-tax-tribunal" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Low Incomes Tax Reform Group&lt;/a&gt;). If you claim you were non-resident, you are the one who must show it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The US is built the same way. Even if you trip the &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/us-substantial-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Substantial Presence Test&lt;/a&gt;, you may be able to step back out of US tax residence through the closer-connection exception — but only if you &lt;em&gt;file&lt;/em&gt; for it. The IRS is explicit: "You must file Form 8840, Closer Connection Exception Statement for Aliens, to claim the Closer Connection Exception." And if you miss the deadline, you "cannot claim the closer connection exception to the substantial presence test, unless you can show by clear and convincing evidence that you took reasonable actions to become aware of the filing requirements" (&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/closer-connection-exception-to-the-substantial-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;). The relief is real, but it is yours to claim and yours to substantiate.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Immigration asks the same of you
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Applications for a residence permit, settlement or citizenship turn on days present and days absent — and the applicant, again, carries the proof. US naturalisation is a clear example: the applicant bears the burden of establishing eligibility by a preponderance of the evidence — that it is "more likely than not" they meet every requirement, including the continuous-residence and physical-presence rules (&lt;a href="https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-1-part-e-chapter-4" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;USCIS Policy Manual&lt;/a&gt;). Many countries make you list every trip abroad over a multi-year window to evidence exactly that, which is its own &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/citizenship-physical-presence-day-count" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;paperwork trap&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A particular danger sits inside this. An authority that knows two dates — an entry and a later exit — can reasonably presume you were present for everything in between unless you can show otherwise. ==A gap you cannot account for is rarely treated as neutral; it is often counted against you.==&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Stamps were never a ledger
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The traditional proof was a passport stamp. It was always a poor one — date-only, frequently illegible, and never a running total — and it is now disappearing. The EU's Entry/Exit System changes the picture on both sides. As the European Commission states, "as of 10 April 2026, the EES replaces the stamping of passports," and the system instead "registers the person's name, travel document data, biometric data ... and the date and place of entry and exit" (&lt;a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/smart-borders/entry-exit-system_en" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;European Commission&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Two consequences follow. The authorities now hold a precise, automatic record of your external border crossings — see our &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/ees-entry-exit-system-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;guide to EES&lt;/a&gt;. And you lose the stamp you might once have pointed to. If the official record and your memory disagree, the one holding a contemporaneous log is in the stronger position.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What actually counts as evidence
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No single document proves a day; a consistent body of them does. The records people fall back on, depending on the question, include:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;travel tickets and boarding passes showing each entry and exit;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;accommodation, tenancy or hotel records placing you somewhere on a date;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;card and bank transactions that quietly timestamp your location;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;employer, payroll or assignment records;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;and your own contemporaneous diary of where you were each day.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The common thread is that this evidence is most credible when it was &lt;em&gt;created at the time&lt;/em&gt;, not reconstructed afterwards for a form. Authorities know the difference between a record kept as you went and a best-effort guess assembled under deadline.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Where Countly fits
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You cannot control which authority asks, or how strict the standard is. You can control whether, when the question comes, you have an answer already written down. ==The single most useful thing to hold is a contemporaneous, day-by-day record of which country you were in and when you crossed each border== — exactly the raw material every test, and every challenge to it, runs on.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That is the quiet job Countly does. It keeps an automatic, private, on-device log of your days per country and your border crossings — no account, nothing leaving your phone — and watches your Schengen 90/180 balance, tax-residency thresholds and visa limits against it. When a tax authority, an immigration officer or your own accountant asks how many days, you are reading from a record you kept as it happened, not rebuilding one from memory. For the mechanics of doing this well, see &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/how-to-count-days-abroad" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;how to count your days abroad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The burden may be yours. A clean record is how you carry it lightly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;General information only — not legal or tax advice. Burden-of-proof rules, residence tests and immigration requirements are country-specific and change; check the current official guidance or a qualified adviser for your situation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>burdenofproof</category>
      <category>taxresidency</category>
      <category>recordkeeping</category>
      <category>immigration</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dual tax residency and the treaty tie-breaker</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 20 Jun 2026 10:25:28 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/dual-tax-residency-and-the-treaty-tie-breaker-1cpb</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/dual-tax-residency-and-the-treaty-tie-breaker-1cpb</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;You can satisfy two countries' residence tests in the same year. When that happens, a treaty — not your passport — decides where you are taxed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  When two countries both claim you
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every country writes its own residence rules, and they rarely line up. The UK's &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/uk-statutory-residence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Statutory Residence Test&lt;/a&gt; can make you resident on relatively few days once you have enough UK ties; the &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/us-substantial-presence-test" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;US Substantial Presence Test&lt;/a&gt; counts a weighted tally of days across three years. Split a year between two places and you can land inside both at once.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;HMRC states it plainly: &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dual-residents-hs302-self-assessment-helpsheet/dual-residents-2025-hs302" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;"If you live in the UK and another country and both countries tax your income, you're a dual resident."&lt;/a&gt; Left unresolved, each country would tax your worldwide income — the same income, twice. That is the problem a tax treaty exists to fix.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The tie-breaker: one residence, decided in order
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Where two countries have a double taxation agreement (DTA), it contains a tie-breaker article — almost always modelled on &lt;a href="https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2017/12/model-tax-convention-on-income-and-on-capital-condensed-version-2017_g1g8769b/mtc_cond-2017-en.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Article 4(2) of the OECD Model Tax Convention&lt;/a&gt; — that assigns you to a single country for treaty purposes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;==It works as a cascade: you apply the tests in a fixed order and stop at the first one that gives a clear answer.== As HMRC describes it, &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dual-residents-hs302-self-assessment-helpsheet/dual-residents-2025-hs302" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;"These rules are a series of tests. Once you've satisfied one of the tests, you do not need to continue with the rest of them."&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"&gt;&lt;table&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Test (in order)&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;What it asks&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;1. Permanent home&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;The country with "accommodation that's always available for your personal use". A home in only one country settles it.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;2. Centre of vital interests&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;If a home is available in both, the country where "your social, domestic, political and cultural links are greater".&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;3. Habitual abode&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;If that is still unclear, "which of the 2 countries you live in regularly, normally or customarily".&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;4. Nationality&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;If you have a habitual abode in both or neither, the country "where you're a national".&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;5. Mutual agreement&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;If none of the above decides it, the two tax authorities settle it between them.&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(The phrases in quotes are HMRC's own wording from its &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dual-residents-hs302-self-assessment-helpsheet/dual-residents-2025-hs302" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;HS302 helpsheet&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Why the day count runs through all of it
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The tie-breaker reads as qualitative, but days sit underneath most of it. "Habitual abode", in the OECD's framing, turns on the frequency, duration and regularity of your stays — a question you can only answer with dates. "Centre of vital interests" weighs where your life actually happens, which your days quietly evidence. Even "a permanent home available to you" is read against how much you are really there.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So the soft-sounding tests are decided on hard facts, and the hardest fact is the simplest: where were you, and when. Get an early test wrong and there is no later test to rescue you — only the two tax authorities, negotiating over your file.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Claiming it is on you
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Winning the tie-breaker does not happen automatically; you have to assert it. HMRC says a dual-resident individual is &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/international-manual/intm154040" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;"responsible for determining, in the first instance, their own residence status for the purposes of the relevant Double Taxation Agreement"&lt;/a&gt;, and then claims relief through Self Assessment using the HS302 helpsheet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The US works the same way. Per the &lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/frequently-asked-questions-about-international-individual-tax-matters" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt;, "if you would be treated as a resident of the other country under the tie-breaker rule and you claim treaty benefits as a resident of that country, you are treated as a nonresident alien in figuring your U.S. income tax" — but only if you file Form 1040-NR with a completed Form 8833. Miss the paperwork and the position is not made for you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few cautions, because this varies by country:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;No treaty, no tie-breaker.&lt;/strong&gt; If the two countries have no DTA, there is no treaty tie-breaker at all; relief, if any, comes only from each country's domestic rules.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Treaties differ.&lt;/strong&gt; Most follow the OECD order, but the wording — and occasionally the sequence — can vary, so read the specific agreement.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;There can be a sting in the tail.&lt;/strong&gt; For some long-term US green-card holders, claiming the tie-breaker can carry further tax consequences, which the &lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/publications/p519" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;IRS&lt;/a&gt; flags — take advice before you rely on it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;None of this is the Schengen 90/180 day-count, which is an immigration limit on time in a region — a separate regime from where you are tax-resident. Do not let the two numbers blur together.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What you actually control
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You cannot dictate where your centre of vital interests sits, or how an authority weighs your ties. But you can control the one input every test leans on: an exact account of which days you spent in which country, and when you crossed each border. That same record is what keeps you out of the opposite trap — trying, and failing, to be &lt;a href="https://www.endlessriver.xyz/countly/blog/tax-resident-of-nowhere" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;a tax resident of nowhere&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Countly keeps that account for you, automatically and on your phone — every entry and exit, counted per country, with no account and nothing leaving the device. So when a treaty claim, an accountant, or a tax authority asks where you really lived, the dates are already there, and they are the real ones.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;General information only — not legal or tax advice. Residence rules, treaties and forms are country-specific and change; check the current official guidance or a qualified adviser for your situation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>dualresidency</category>
      <category>taxtreaty</category>
      <category>tiebreakerrules</category>
      <category>centreofvitalinterests</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hi Dev.to!</title>
      <dc:creator>Countly - Country Days Tracker</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:14:21 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/countlytracker/hi-devto-4f09</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/countlytracker/hi-devto-4f09</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;The best Country Days Tracker is coming! &lt;/p&gt;

</description>
    </item>
  </channel>
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