I have a 12 month physical presence period from April 13, 2016 to April 14, 2017 and another between August 3, 2017 to August 4, 2018. Can I claim the qualifying days from Jan 1, 2016-April 13, 2016 and the days between August 3, 2017 and December 31, 2017?
Pub 54 says that 2 periods can overlap but doesn't say anything about a gap between 2 periods.
The physical presence test is for the tax year. So if I'm understanding correctly, you are saying that you were physically outside the U.S. from Jan 1 - Apr 14 2017 and again from Aug 3 to Dec 31 2017. So you do not meet the requirement for the tax year for being outside of the U.S.
I qualified for the FEIE through the Physical presence test, April 10, 2016 - April 13, 2017. I met the 330/365 Physical Presence Test also between August 4, 2017 - August 3rd, 2018. In between April 13, 2017 and August 4, 2017, I was still overseas working as well but took two 20 day leave periods in the United States (1 in April, 1 in July). My question is that there are qualifying days in 2017 year in both periods. The way I read the 2555 instructions is that you can use any qualifying days in a tax year that fall within physical presence test dates.
Yes. I've done it before and again this year. It's covered the IRS instructions. If you were out for Jan-Aug and Nov-Dec in a given tax year, both periods can be excluded as long as each period individually meets the 330-day physical presence test. For example Jan-Aug qualifies based on Sep 2018-Aug 2019 and Nov-Dec qualifies based on Nov 2019-Oct 2020.