Tax Home Establishment Date in Foreign Country

[Melymel12]

What would be the official date that I established my tax home? 

I moved to Canada for school around August 20, 2017. When filing 2018 taxes, I did the physical presence test using the dates 01/14/2018 to 01/13/2019. 

Is my tax home establishment date the day I moved (Aug 20), the start of the physical presence test (01/14/18), or the end of the test (01/13/19)?

[tagteam]

@pk

[pk]

@Melymel12 , the tax-home begins on the first full day in the foreign country -- e.g.  if leave US on 8/1/XX  ( at 8:00 PM ) for settling in London for a few years, arrive at London Heathrow on 8/2/XX at 10:15AM, your tax home will begin 8/3/XX.  For you , tax home in Canada probably began on August 21, 2017  since you arrived there on 8/20/17.

The Physical test period  is any continuous 12 months that begin or ends on the tax year that you are filing and  you are trying to meet 330 Days of  presence in any foreign country  ( not necessarily your tax home country ). Thus for tax year 2018, you could use a test period 01/01/2018 through 12/31/2018 or  as you have used 01/14/2018 through 01/13/2019 because you were  in the USA during 01/01/2018 through 01/13/2018 -- arriving abroad on 01/13/2018.

Does this make sense ? 

BTW -- generally students do not establish a foreign tax home and I am just surprised that you did --  you had income or stipend  etc. that you need to exclude or what ?  just curious -- does not change my answer.

pk

[Melymel12]

Okay thank you @pk! I moved to Canada for school using a study permit. Shortly after being in Canada I started working as my study permit allowed me to. Since I was working in Canada, I have to pay Canadian taxes which is why I want to exclude that income on my U.S taxes. All of my income came from Canada. 

[pk]

@Melymel12  thank you for satisfying my curiosity.  

pk