@DoninGA, thank you for your clarifying questions and help.
@pk, thank you for your patience and time. You're the first to explicitly point out the loose relationship between qualifying period and exclusion amount. My travel and dwell periods from 2017-2019 are below. Please advise if you have more questions.
3 July 2017 - 25 June 2018: War zone (358 full days overseas)
26-27 June 2018: Travel to United Arab Emirates and States
28 June 2018 - 4 August 2018: States (38 full days stateside)
5-7 August 2018: Travel to United Arab Emirates and war zone
8 August 2018 - 4 October 2018: War zone
5-6 October 2018: Travel to United Arab Emirates and States
7-15 October 2018: States (9 full days stateside)
16-17 October 2018: Travel to Czech Republic
18-19 October 2018: Czech Republic (2 full days overseas)
20 October 2018: Travel to Germany
21 October 2018: Germany (1 full day overseas)
22 October 2018: Travel to Netherlands
23-24 October 2018: Netherlands (2 full days overseas)
25 October 2018: Travel to England
26-28 October 2018: England (3 full days overseas)
29 October 2018: Travel to Ireland
30-31 October 2018: Ireland (2 full days overseas)
1 November 2018: Travel to England
2-3 November 2018: England (2 full days overseas)
4-5 November 2018: Travel to United Arab Emirates and war zone
6 November 2018 - 31 March 2019: War zone (146 full days overseas)
1-2 April 2019: Travel to United Arab Emirates and South Korea
3-7 April 2019: South Korea (5 full days overseas)
8 April 2019: Travel to Japan
9-29 April 2019: Japan (21 full days overseas)
30 April 2019 - 1 May 2019: Travel to United Arab Emirates and war zone
2 May 2019 - 24 August 2019: War zone (115 full days overseas)
25-26 August 2019: Travel United Arab Emirates and States
The 12-month period I chose when I filed for 2017 was 29 May 2017 - 28 May 2018, which allowed me to be well over the 330-day threshold.
For 2018, choosing 8 August 2018 - 7 August 2019 would give me 332 full days overseas. But as you surely suspected, choosing this time frame doesn't maximize my exclusion (it only excludes 40K of my income for that year, to be exact). When would I be able to receive the remainder of the exclusion that falls outside of the 12-month period that I chose (namely, the exclusion for the income made during the months of January through July 2018)?
