How day counting works
What turns the country stays you record into the day totals shown on your residency page
What is being counted
Every total on your residency page is worked out from the country stays you have recorded. A stay is a range of dates in one country, and the counter turns those ranges into a number of days for each rule set you are being measured against.
All of that arithmetic happens on our servers rather than in your browser, so the number you read is the same number the rest of the product uses, including the threshold emails.
Only confirmed stays are counted
The midnight rule
A day is attributed to the country you were in at the end of that calendar day. A stay recorded from 3 March to 10 March means you were present at midnight on each of those days, and both the first and the last date are included.
A stay with no end date is treated as running to the end of whichever window is being measured, so an open trip you have not closed off still contributes to today’s totals.
Countries word this differently
Overlapping stays are counted once
Before counting, overlapping ranges are merged so that a calendar day covered by more than one stay contributes a single day. Recording the same trip twice, or leaving a rough stay in place after adding a precise one, therefore cannot inflate a total.
The stays themselves are left exactly as you entered them. Only the count is de-duplicated, so you can keep whatever level of detail is useful to you.
The window each rule is measured over
Tax-year windows
Most rule sets are measured over a country’s tax year, and tax years do not all begin on 1 January. The window in use is shown beside each total, so you can see which dates the number covers rather than having to infer it.
Rolling twelve-month windows
Some rules look at any twelve months rather than a fixed year. For those, the window ends on the date you are viewing and reaches back twelve months, so the total moves as older days fall out of range.
This is why the same set of trips produces different totals under different rules. Comparing one country’s number against another’s is rarely meaningful unless the windows match.
Rules that look across several years
A few of the rules we track are not answered by a single year. They come in two shapes, and both are handled for you.
- A number of years out of a longer run. Each year is measured on its own and the counter reports how many of them reached the published day figure, out of the number the rule asks for.
- A combined day total across consecutive years. Days are summed across the years in the rule, and years with very few days may be disregarded where the published rule says so.
Where a rule works this way, the wording shown with your result comes from the rule record itself rather than being written by the page, so it stays faithful to the source it cites.
Frequently asked questions
Does the day I fly out count?
Under the midnight rule it counts for the country you were in at the end of that day. A stay is recorded as an inclusive range, so both the entry date and the exit date are days you were present at midnight in that country. If you land somewhere else before midnight, record the arrival stay from that date and the counter treats the day as belonging to the arrival country.
What happens if two stays overlap?
Each calendar day is counted once, however many recorded stays cover it. Overlapping intervals are merged before counting, so a duplicated or slightly mistyped stay inflates nothing. It is still worth tidying overlaps up, because the stays themselves are what you and anyone you share with will read.
Do draft stays count towards my totals?
No. Only stays you have confirmed are counted. Anything created for you by IP inference or by reading a forwarded travel email arrives as a draft awaiting your confirmation, and it is excluded from every count until you confirm it.
Why do two countries show different numbers for the same trips?
Because each rule set is measured over its own window. Some are measured over a tax year that does not start on 1 January, and some are measured over a rolling twelve months ending on the date you are looking at. The same travel therefore produces different totals under different rules, which is expected rather than an error.
Does a day count tell me whether I am tax resident somewhere?
No. Day counts are one input into rules that also consider ties, homes, work and intent, and none of that is assessed here. The counter shows what you have recorded and how it sits against a published day figure. Consult a qualified professional about your own position.
Related help articles
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Our support team is here to help. Contact us and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Contact Support