To claim the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, or the foreign housing deduction, you must have foreign earned income, your tax home must be in a foreign country, and you must be one of the following:

• A U.S. citizen who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year,
• A U.S. resident alien who is a citizen or national of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty in effect and who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year, or
• A U.S. citizen or a U.S. resident alien who is physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months.

See Publication 519 to find out if you qualify as a U.S. resident alien for tax purposes and whether you keep that alien status when you temporarily work abroad.

If you are a nonresident alien married to a U.S. citizen or resident, and both you and your spouse choose to treat you as a resident, you are a resident alien for tax purposes. For information on making the choice, see the discussion in chapter 1 under Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident.

Waiver of minimum time requirements. The minimum time requirements for bona fide residence and physical presence can be waived if you must leave a foreign country because of war, civil unrest, or similar adverse conditions in that country. See Waiver of Time Requirements under Exceptions to Tests, later.

Figure 4-A Can I Claim the Exclusion Deduction?

Tax Home in Foreign Country

To qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, or the foreign housing deduction, your tax home must be in a foreign country throughout your period of bona fide residence or physical presence abroad. Bona fide residence and physical presence are explained later.

Tax Home

Your tax home is the general area of your main place of business, employment, or post of duty, regardless of where you maintain your family home. Your tax home is the place where you are permanently or indefinitely engaged to work as an employee or self-employed individual. Having a "tax home" in a given location does not necessarily mean that the given location is your residence or domicile for tax purposes.

If you do not have a regular or main place of business because of the nature of your work, your tax home may be the place where you regularly live. If you have neither a regular or main place of business nor a place where you regularly live, you are considered an itinerant and your tax home is wherever you work.

You are not considered to have a tax home in a foreign country for any period in which your abode is in the United States. However, your abode is not necessarily in the United States while you are temporarily in the United States. Your abode is also not necessarily in the United States merely because you maintain a dwelling in the United States, whether or not your spouse or dependents use the dwelling.

"Abode" has been variously defined as one's home, habitation, residence, domicile, or place of dwelling. It does not mean your principal place of business. "Abode" has a domestic rather than a vocational meaning and does not mean the same as "tax home." The location of your abode often will depend on where you maintain your economic, family, and personal ties.

Example 1. You are employed on an offshore oil rig in the territorial waters of a foreign country and work a 28-day on/28-day off schedule. You return to your family residence in the United States during your off periods. You are considered to have an abode in the United States and do not satisfy the tax home test in the foreign country. You cannot claim either of the exclusions or the housing deduction.

Example 2. For several years, you were a marketing executive with a producer of machine tools in Toledo, Ohio. In November of last year your employer transferred you to London, England, for a minimum of 18 months to set up a sales operation for Europe. Before you left, you distributed business cards showing your business and home addresses in London. You kept ownership of your home in Toledo but rented it to another family. You placed your car in storage. In November of last year, you moved your spouse, children, furniture, and family pets to a home your employer rented for you in London.

Shortly after moving, you leased a car, and you and your spouse got British driving licenses. Your entire family got library cards for the local public library. You and your spouse opened bank accounts with a London bank and secured consumer credit. You joined a local business league, and both you and your spouse became active in the neighborhood civic association and worked with a local charity. Your abode is in London for the time you live there, and you satisfy the tax home test in the foreign country.

Temporary or Indefinite Assignment

The location of your tax home often depends on whether your assignment is temporary or indefinite. If you are temporarily absent from your tax home in the United States on business, you may be able to deduct your away-from-home expenses (for travel, meals, and lodging) but you would not qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. If your new work assignment is for an indefinite period, your new place of employment becomes your tax home, and you would not be able to deduct any of the related expenses that you have in the general area of this new work assignment. If your new tax home is in a foreign country and you meet the other requirements, your earnings may qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion.

If you expect your employment away from home in a single location to last, and it does last, for 1 year or less, it is temporary unless facts and circumstances indicate otherwise. If you expect it to last for more than 1 year, it is indefinite. If you expect it to last for 1 year or less, but at some later date you expect it to last longer than 1 year, it is temporary (in the absence of facts and circumstances indicating otherwise) until your expectation changes.

Foreign Country

To meet the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test, you must live in or be present in a foreign country. A foreign country usually is any territory (including the air space and territorial waters) under the sovereignty of a government other than that of the United States.

The term "foreign country" includes the seabed and subsoil of those submarine areas adjacent to the territorial waters of a foreign country and over which the foreign country has exclusive rights under international law to explore and exploit the natural resources.

The term "foreign country" does not include Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, or U.S. possessions such as American Samoa. For purposes of the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, and the foreign housing deduction, the terms "foreign,""abroad," and "overseas" refer to areas outside the United States, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Antarctic region.

American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Residence or presence in a U.S. possession does not qualify you for the foreign earned income exclusion. You may, however, qualify for the possession exclusion.

American Samoa. There is a possession exclusion available to individuals who are bona fide residents of American Samoa for the entire tax year. Gross income from sources within American Samoa, Guam, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands may be eligible for this exclusion. Income that is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within those possessions also may be eligible for this exclusion. Use Form 4563, Exclusion of Income for Bona Fide Residents of American Samoa, to figure the exclusion.

Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. A possession exclusion will be available to residents of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands if, and when, new implementation agreements take effect between the United States and those possessions.

For more information, see Publication 570.

Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands

Residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are not entitled to the possession exclusion (discussed above) or to the exclusion of foreign earned income or the exclusion or deduction of foreign housing amounts under the bona fide residence or physical presence rules discussed later.

Puerto Rico. Generally, if you are a U.S. citizen who is a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico for the entire tax year, you are not subject to U.S. tax on income from Puerto Rican sources. This does not include amounts paid for services performed as an employee of the United States. However, you are subject to U.S. tax on your income from sources outside Puerto Rico. You cannot deduct expenses allocable to the exempt income.

Bona Fide Residence Test

The bona fide residence test applies to U.S. citizens and to any U.S. resident alien who is a citizen or national of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty in effect.

Bona fide residence. To see if you meet the test of bona fide residence in a foreign country, you must find out if you have established such a residence in a foreign country.

Your bona fide residence is not necessarily the same as your domicile. Your domicile is your permanent home, the place to which you always return or intend to return.

Example. You could have your domicile in Cleveland, Ohio, and a bona fide residence in London if you intend to return eventually to Cleveland.

The fact that you go to London does not automatically make London your bona fide residence. If you go there as a tourist, or on a short business trip, and return to the United States, you have not established bona fide residence in London. But if you go to London to work for an indefinite or extended period and you set up permanent quarters there for yourself and your family, you probably have established a bona fide residence in a foreign country, even though you intend to return eventually to the United States.

You are clearly not a resident of London in the first instance. However, in the second, you are a resident because your stay in London appears to be permanent. If your residency is not as clearly defined as either of these illustrations, it may be more difficult to decide whether you have established a bona fide residence.

Determination. Questions of bona fide residence are determined according to each individual case, taking into account such factors as your intention or the purpose of your trip and the nature and length of your stay abroad.

You must show the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that you have been a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year. The IRS decides whether you qualify as a bona fide resident of a foreign country largely on the basis of facts you report on Form 2555. IRS cannot make this determination until you file Form 2555.

Statement to foreign authorities. You are not considered a bona fide resident of a foreign country if you make a statement to the authorities of that country that you are not a resident of that country and the authorities hold that you are not subject to their income tax laws as a resident.

If you have made such a statement and the authorities have not made a final decision on your status, you are not considered to be a bona fide resident of that foreign country.

Special agreements and treaties. An income tax exemption provided in a treaty or other international agreement will not in itself prevent you from being a bona fide resident of a foreign country. Whether a treaty prevents you from becoming a bona fide resident of a foreign country is determined under all provisions of the treaty, including specific provisions relating to residence or privileges and immunities.

Example 1. You are a U.S. citizen employed in the United Kingdom by a U.S. employer under contract with the U.S. Armed Forces. You do not qualify for special status under the North Atlantic Treaty Status of Forces Agreement. You are subject to United Kingdom income taxes and may qualify as a bona fide resident.

Example 2. You are a U.S. citizen in the United Kingdom who qualifies as an "employee" of an armed service or as a member of a "civilian component" under the North Atlantic Treaty Status of Forces Agreement. You do not qualify as a bona fide resident.

Example 3. You are a U.S. citizen employed in Japan by a U.S. employer under contract with the U.S. Armed Forces. You are subject to the agreement of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. You do not qualify as a bona fide resident.

Example 4. You are a U.S. citizen employed as an "official" by the United Nations in Switzerland. You are exempt from Swiss taxation on the salary or wages paid to you by the United Nations. This does not prevent you from qualifying as a bona fide resident if you meet all the requirements for that status.

Effect of voting by absentee ballot. If you are a U.S. citizen living abroad, you can vote by absentee ballot in any election held in the United States without risking your status as a bona fide resident of a foreign country.

However, if you give information to the local election officials about the nature and length of your stay abroad that does not match the information you give for the bona fide residence test, the information given in connection with absentee voting will be considered in determining your status, but will not necessarily be conclusive.

Uninterrupted period including entire tax year. To qualify for bona fide residence, you must reside in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year. An entire tax year is from January 1 through December 31 for taxpayers who file their income tax returns on a calendar year basis.

During the period of bona fide residence in a foreign country, you can leave the country for brief or temporary trips back to the United States or elsewhere for vacation or business. To keep your status as a bona fide resident of a foreign country, you must have a clear intention of returning from such trips, without unreasonable delay, to your foreign residence or to a new bona fide residence in another foreign country.

Example 1. You are the Lisbon representative of a U.S. employer. You arrived with your family in Lisbon on November 1, 1998. Your assignment is indefinite, and you intend to live there with your family until your company sends you to a new post. You immediately established residence there. On April 1, 1999, you arrived in the United States to meet with your employer, leaving your family in Lisbon. You returned to Lisbon on May 1, and continue living there. On January 1, 2000, you completed an uninterrupted period of residence for a full tax year (1999), and you may qualify as a bona fide resident of a foreign country.

Example 2. Assume that in Example 1, you transferred back to the United States on December 13, 1999. You would not qualify under the bona fide residence test because your bona fide residence in the foreign country, although it lasted more than a year, did not include a full tax year. You may, however, qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion or the housing exclusion or deduction under the physical presence test discussed later.

Bona fide residence status not automatic. You do not automatically acquire bona fide resident status merely by living in a foreign country or countries for 1 year.

Example. If you go to a foreign country to work on a particular construction job for a specified period of time, you ordinarily will not be regarded as a bona fide resident of that country even though you work there for one tax year or longer. The length of your stay and the nature of your job are only some of the factors to be considered in determining whether you meet the bona fide residence test.

Bona fide resident for part of a year. Once you have established bona fide residence in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year, you will qualify as a bona fide resident for the period starting with the date you actually began the residence and ending with the date you abandon the foreign residence. You could qualify as a bona fide resident for an entire tax year plus parts of 1 or 2 other tax years.

Example. You were a bona fide resident of England from March 1, 1998, through September 14, 2000. On September 15, 2000, you returned to the United States. Since you were a bona fide resident of a foreign country for all of 1999, you also qualify as a bona fide resident from March 1, 1998, through the end of 1998 and from January 1, 2000, through September 14, 2000.

Reassignment. If you are assigned from one foreign post to another, you may or may not have a break in foreign residence between your assignments, depending on the circumstances.

Example 1. You were a resident of France from October 1, 1999, through November 30, 2000. On December 1, 2000, you and your family returned to the United States to wait for an assignment to another foreign country. Your household goods also were returned to the United States.

Your foreign residence ended on November 30, 2000, and did not begin again until after you were assigned to another foreign country and physically entered that country. Since you were not a bona fide resident of a foreign country for the entire tax year of 1999 or 2000, you do not qualify under the bona fide residence test in either year. You may, however, qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion or the housing exclusion or deduction under the physical presence test, discussed later.

Example 2. Assume the same facts as in Example 1, except that upon completion of your assignment in France you were given a new assignment to England. On December 1, 2000, you and your family returned to the United States for a month's vacation. On January 2, 2001, you arrived in England for your new assignment. Because you did not interrupt your bona fide residence abroad, you qualify at the end of 2000 as a bona fide resident of a foreign country.

Physical Presence Test

You meet the physical presence test if you are physically present in a foreign country or countries 330 full days during a period of 12 consecutive months. The 330 qualifying days do not have to be consecutive. The physical presence test applies to both U.S. citizens and resident aliens.

The physical presence test is based only on how long you stay in a foreign country or countries. This test does not depend on the kind of residence you establish, your intentions about returning, or the nature and purpose of your stay abroad. However, your intentions with regard to the nature and purpose of your stay abroad are relevant in determining whether you meet the tax home test explained earlier under Tax Home in Foreign Country.

330 full days. Generally, to meet the physical presence test, you must be physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during the 12-month period. You can count days you spent abroad for any reason. You do not have to be in a foreign country only for employment purposes. You can be on vacation time.

You do not meet the physical presence test if illness, family problems, a vacation, or your employer's orders cause you to be present for less than the required amount of time.

Exception. You can be physically present in a foreign country or countries for less than 330 full days and still meet the physical presence test if you are required to leave a country because of war or civil unrest. See Waiver of Time Requirements, later.

Full day. A full day is a period of 24 consecutive hours, beginning at midnight. You must spend each of the 330 full days in a foreign country. When you leave the United States to go directly to a foreign country or when you return directly to the United States from a foreign country, the time you spend on or over international waters does not count toward the 330-day total.

Example. You leave the United States for France by air on June 10. You arrive in France at 9:00 a.m. on June 11. Your first full day in France is June 12.

Passing over foreign country. If, in traveling from the United States to a foreign country, you pass over a foreign country before midnight of the day you leave, the first day you can count toward the 330-day total is the day following the day you leave the United States.

Example. You leave the United States by air at 9:30 a.m. on June 10 to travel to Spain. You pass over a part of France at 11:00 p.m. on June 10 and arrive in Spain at 12:30 a.m. on June 11. Your first full day in a foreign country is June 11.

Change of location. You can move about from one place to another in a foreign country or to another foreign country without losing full days. But if any part of your travel is not within a foreign country or countries and takes 24 hours or more, you will lose full days.

Example 1. You leave London by air at 11:00 p.m. on July 6 and arrive in Stockholm at 5:00 a.m. on July 7. Your trip takes less than 24 hours and you lose no full days.

Example 2. You leave Norway by ship at 10:00 p.m. on July 6 and arrive in Portugal at 6:00 a.m. on July 8. Since your travel is not within a foreign country or countries and the trip takes more than 24 hours, you lose as full days July 6, 7, and 8. If you remain in Portugal, your next full day in a foreign country is July 9.

In United States while in transit. If you are in transit between two points outside the United States and are physically present in the United States for less than 24 hours, you are not treated as present in the United States during the transit. You are treated as traveling over areas not within any foreign country.

How to figure the 12-month period. There are four rules you should know when figuring the 12-month period.

1. Your 12-month period can begin with any day of the month. It ends the day before the same calendar day, 12 months later.
2. Your 12-month period must be made up of consecutive months. Any 12-month period can be used if the 330 days in a foreign country fall within that period.
3. You do not have to begin your 12-month period with your first full day in a foreign country or to end it with the day you leave. You can choose the 12-month period that gives you the greatest exclusion.
4. In determining whether the 12-month period falls within a longer stay in the foreign country, 12-month periods can overlap one another.

Example 1. You are a construction worker who works on and off in a foreign country over a 20-month period. You might pick up the 330 full days in a 12-month period only during the middle months of the time you work in the foreign country because the first few and last few months of the 20-month period are broken up by long visits to the United States.

Example 2. You work in Canada for a 20-month period from January 1, 1999, through August 31, 2000, except that you spend 28 days in February 1999 and 28 days in February 2000 on vacation in the United States. You are present in Canada 330 full days during each of the following two 12-month periods: January 1, 1999 -- December 31, 1999, and September 1, 1999 -- August 31, 2000. By overlapping the 12-month periods in this way, you meet the physical presence test for the whole 20-month period. See Table 4-1.

Table 4-1

Exceptions to Tests

There are two exceptions to meeting the requirements under the bona fide residence and the physical presence tests.

Waiver of Time Requirements

Both the bona fide residence test and the physical presence test contain minimum time requirements. The minimum time requirements can be waived, however, if you must leave a foreign country because of war, civil unrest, or similar adverse conditions in that country. You also must be able to show that you reasonably could have expected to meet the minimum time requirements if not for the adverse conditions. To qualify for the waiver, you must actually have your tax home in the foreign country and be a bona fide resident of, or be physically present in, the foreign country on or before the beginning date of the waiver.

Early in 2001, the IRS will publish in the Internal Revenue Bulletin a list of countries qualifying for the waiver for 2000 and the effective dates. If you left one of the countries on or after the date listed for each country, you can qualify for the bona fide residence test or physical presence test for 2000 without meeting the minimum time requirement. However, in figuring your exclusion, the number of your qualifying days of bona fide residence or physical presence includes only days of actual residence or presence within the country.

You can read the Internal Revenue Bulletins on the Internet at www.irs.gov. Select Tax Info For You. Or, you can get a copy of the list of countries by writing to:

Internal Revenue Service
International Returns Section
P.O. Box 920
Bensalem, PA 19020-8518.

U.S. Travel Restrictions

If you are present in a foreign country in violation of U.S. law, you will not be treated as a bona fide resident of a foreign country or as physically present in a foreign country while you are in violation of the law. Income that you earn from sources within such a country for services performed during a period of violation does not qualify as foreign earned income. Your housing expenses within that country (or outside that country for housing your spouse or dependents) while you are in violation of the law cannot be included in figuring your foreign housing amount.

Currently, the countries to which travel restrictions apply and the beginning dates of the restrictions are as follows:

• Cuba -- January 1, 1987
• Iraq -- August 2, 1990
• Libya -- January 1, 1987

The restrictions are still in effect in all three countries.

Foreign Earned Income

The foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, and the foreign housing deduction are based on foreign earned income. For this purpose, foreign earned income is income you receive for services you perform in a foreign country during a period your tax home is in a foreign country and during which you meet either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test, discussed earlier.

Foreign earned income does not include the following amounts.

1. The previously excluded value of meals and lodging furnished for the convenience of your employer.
2. Pension or annuity payments including social security benefits (see Pensions and annuities, later).
3. U.S. Government payments to its employees (see U.S. Government Employees, later).
4. Amounts included in your income because of your employer's contributions to a nonexempt employee trust or to a nonqualified annuity contract.
5. Recaptured unallowable moving expenses (see Moving Expenses in chapter 5).
6. Payments received after the end of the tax year following the tax year in which you performed the services that earned the income.

Earned income is pay for personal services performed, such as wages, salaries, or professional fees. The list that follows classifies many types of income into three categories. The column headed Variable Income lists income that may fall into either the earned income category, the unearned income category, or partly into both. For more information on earned and unearned income, see Earned and Unearned Income, later.

	Unearned	Variable
Earned Income	Income	Income
Salaries and	Dividends	Business
wages	Interest	profits
Commissions	Capital gains	Royalties
Bonuses	Gambling	Rents
Professional fees	winnings
Tips	Alimony
	Social security
	benefits
	Pensions
	Annuities

In addition to the types of earned income listed, certain noncash income and allowances or reimbursements are considered earned income.

Noncash income. The fair market value of property or facilities provided to you by your employer in the form of lodging, meals, or use of a car is earned income.

Allowances or reimbursements. Earned income includes amounts paid to you as allowances or reimbursements for the following items.

• Cost of living.
• Overseas differential.
• Family.
• Education.
• Home leave.
• Quarters.
• Moving (unless excluded from income as discussed later).

Source of Earned Income

The source of your earned income is the place where you perform the services for which you received the income. Foreign earned income is income you receive for performing personal services in a foreign country. Where or how you are paid has no effect on the source of the income. For example, income you receive for work done in France is income from a foreign source even if the income is paid directly to your bank account in the United States and your employer is located in New York City.

If you receive a specific amount for work done in the United States, you must report that amount as U.S. source income. If you cannot determine how much is for work done in the United States, or for work done partly in the United States and partly in a foreign country, determine the amount of U.S. source income using the method that most correctly shows the proper source of your income.

In most cases you can make this determination on a time basis. U.S. source income is the amount that results from multiplying your total pay (including allowances, reimbursements other than for foreign moves, and noncash fringe benefits) by a fraction. The numerator (top number) is the number of days you worked within the United States. The denominator (bottom number) is the total number of days of work for which you were paid.

Example. You are a U.S. citizen, a bona fide resident of Country A, and working as a mining engineer. Your salary is $76,800 per year. You also receive a $6,000 cost of living allowance, and a $6,000 education allowance. Your employment contract did not indicate that you were entitled to these allowances only while outside the United States. Your total income is $88,800. You work a 5-day week, Monday through Friday. After subtracting your vacation, you have a total of 240 workdays in the year. You worked in the United States during the year for 6 weeks (30 workdays). The following shows how to figure the part for work done in the United States during the year.

Number of days worked in the United States during the year (30) x Number of days of work during the year for which payment was made (240) x Total income ($88,800) = $11,100.

Your U.S. source earned income is $11,100.

Earned and Unearned Income

Earned income was defined earlier as pay for personal services performed. Some types of income are not easily identified as earned or unearned income. These types of income --specifically, income from sole proprietor-ships, partnerships, and corporations, stock options, pensions and annuities, royalties, rents, and fringe benefits--are further explained here. Income from sole proprietor-ships and partnerships is generally treated differently than income from corporations.

Trade or business--sole proprietorship or partnership. Income from a business in which capital investment is an important part of producing the income may be unearned income. If you are a sole proprietor or partner, and your personal services are also an important part of producing the income, the part of the income that represents the value of your personal services will be treated as earned income.

If capital investment is an important part of producing income, no more than 30% of your share of the net profits of the business is earned income.

If you have no net profits, the part of your gross profit that represents a reasonable allowance for personal services actually performed is considered earned income. Because you do not have a net profit, the 30% limit does not apply.

Example 1. You are a U.S. citizen and meet the bona fide residence test. You invest in a partnership based in Algeria that is engaged solely in selling merchandise outside the United States. You perform no services for the partnership. At the end of the tax year, your share of the net profits is $80,000. The entire $80,000 is unearned income.

Example 2. Assume that in Example 1 you spend time operating the business. Your share of the net profits is $80,000, 30% of your share of the profits is $24,000. If the value of your services for the year is $15,000, your earned income is limited to the value of your services, $15,000.

Capital not a factor. If capital is not an income-producing factor and personal services produce the business income, the 30% rule does not apply. The entire amount of business income is earned income.

Example. You and Lou Green are management consultants and operate as equal partners in performing services outside the United States. Because capital is not an income-producing factor, all the income from the partnership is considered earned income.

Trade or business--corporation. The salary you receive from a corporation is earned income only if it represents a reasonable allowance as compensation for work you do for the corporation. Any amount over what is considered a reasonable salary is unearned income.

Example 1. You are a U.S. citizen and an officer and stockholder of a corporation in Canada. You perform no work or service of any kind for the corporation. During the tax year you receive a $10,000 "salary" from the corporation. The $10,000 clearly is not for personal services and is unearned income.

Example 2. You are a U.S. citizen and devote full time as secretary-treasurer of your corporation. During the tax year you receive $100,000 as salary from the corporation. If $80,000 is a reasonable allowance as pay for the work you did, then $80,000 is earned income.

Stock options. You may have earned income if you disposed of stock that you got by exercising a stock option granted to you under an employee stock purchase plan.

If your gain on the disposition of option stock is treated as capital gain, your gain is unearned income.

However, if you disposed of the stock less than 2 years after you were granted the option or less than 1 year after you got the stock, part of the gain on the disposition may be earned income. It is considered received in the year you disposed of the stock and earned in the year you performed the services for which you were granted the option. Any part of the earned income that is due to work you did outside the United States is foreign earned income.

See Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, for a discussion of treatment of stock options.

Pensions and annuities. For purposes of the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, and the foreign housing deduction, amounts received as pensions or annuities are unearned income.

Royalties. Royalties from the leasing of oil and mineral lands and patents generally are a form of rent or dividends and are unearned income.

Royalties received by a writer are earned income if they are received:

1. For the transfer of property rights of the writer in the writer's product, or
2. Under a contract to write a book or series of articles.

Rental income. Generally, rental income is unearned income. If you perform personal services in connection with the production of rent, up to 30% of your net rental income can be considered earned income.

Example. Larry Smith, a U.S. citizen living in Australia, owns and operates a rooming house in Sydney. If he is operating the rooming house as a business that requires capital and personal services, he can consider up to 30% of net rental income as earned income. On the other hand, if he just owns the rooming house and performs no personal services connected with its operation, except perhaps making minor repairs and collecting rents, none of his net income from the house is considered earned income. It is all unearned income.

Professional fees. If you are engaged in a professional occupation (such as a doctor or lawyer), all fees received in the performance of these services are earned income.

Income of an artist. Income you receive from the sale of paintings is earned income if you painted the pictures yourself.

Use of employer's property or facilities. If you receive fringe benefits in the form of the right to use your employer's property or facilities, you must add the fair market value of that right to your pay. Fair market value is the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being required to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of all the necessary facts.

Example. You are privately employed and live in Japan all year. You are paid a salary of $6,000 a month. You live rent-free in a house provided by your employer that has a fair rental value of $3,000 a month. The house is not provided for your employer's convenience. You report on the calendar year, cash basis. You received $72,000 salary from foreign sources plus $36,000 fair rental value of the house, or a total of $108,000 of earned income.

Reimbursement of employee expenses. If you are reimbursed under an accountable plan (defined below) for expenses you incur on your employer's behalf and you have adequately accounted to your employer for the expenses, do not include the reimbursement for those expenses in your earned income.

The expenses for which you are reimbursed are not considered allocable (related) to your earned income. If expenses and reimbursement are equal, there is nothing to allocate to excluded income. If expenses are more than the reimbursement, the unreimbursed expenses are considered to have been incurred in producing earned income and must be divided between your excluded and included income in determining the amount of unreimbursed expenses you can deduct. (See chapter 5.) If the reimbursement is more than the expenses, no expenses remain to be divided between excluded and included income and the excess must be included in earned income.

These rules do not apply to straight-commission salespersons or other individuals who are employees and have arrangements with their employers under which, for withholding tax purposes, their employers consider a percentage of the commissions to be attributable to the expenses of the employees and do not withhold taxes on that percentage.

Accountable plan. An accountable plan is a reimbursement or allowance arrangement that includes all three of the following rules.

1. The expenses covered under the plan must have a business connection.
2. The employee must adequately account to the employer for these expenses within a reasonable period of time.
3. The employee must return any excess reimbursement or allowance within a reasonable period of time.

Reimbursement of moving expenses. Earned income may include reimbursement of moving expenses. You must include as earned income:

1. Any reimbursements of, or payments for, nondeductible moving expenses,
2. Reimbursements that are more than your deductible expenses and that you do not return to your employer,
3. Any reimbursements made (or treated as made) under a nonaccountable plan (any plan that does not meet the rules listed above for an accountable plan), even if they are for deductible expenses, and
4. Any reimbursement of moving expenses you deducted in an earlier year.

This section discusses reimbursements that must be included in earned income. Publication 521, Moving Expenses, discusses additional rules that apply to moving expense deductions and reimbursements.

The rules for determining when the reimbursement is considered earned or where the reimbursement is considered earned may differ somewhat from the general rules previously discussed.

Although you receive the reimbursement in one tax year, it may be considered earned for services performed, or to be performed, in another tax year. You must report the reimbursement as income on your return in the year you receive it, even if it is considered earned during a different year.

Move from U.S. to foreign country. If you move from the United States to a foreign country, your moving expense reimbursement is considered pay for future services to be performed at the new location. The reimbursement is considered earned solely in the year of the move if your tax home is in a foreign country and you qualify under the bona fide residence test or physical presence test for at least 120 days during that tax year.

If you do not qualify under either test for 120 days during the year of the move, the reimbursement is considered earned in the year of the move and the year following the year of the move. To figure the amount earned in the year of the move, multiply the reimbursement by a fraction. The numerator (top number) is the number of days in your qualifying period that fall within the year of the move, and the denominator (bottom number) is the total number of days in the year of the move.

The difference between the total reimbursement and the amount considered earned in the year of the move is the amount considered earned in the year following the year of the move. The part earned in each year is figured as shown in the following example.

Example. You are a U.S. citizen working in the United States. You were told in October 1999 that you were being transferred to a foreign country. You arrived in the foreign country on December 15, 1999, and you qualify as a bona fide resident for the remainder of 1999 and all of 2000. Your employer reimbursed you $2,000 in January 2000 for the part of the moving expense that you were not allowed to deduct. Because you did not qualify as a bona fide resident for at least 120 days last year (the year of the move), the reimbursement is considered pay for services performed in the foreign country for both 1999 and 2000.

You figure the part of the moving expense reimbursement for services performed in the foreign country in 1999 by multiplying the total reimbursement by a fraction. The fraction is the number of days during which you were a bona fide resident during the year of the move divided by 365. The remaining part of the reimbursement is for services performed in the foreign country in 2000.

This computation is used only to determine when the reimbursement is considered earned. You would report the amount you include in income in this tax year, the year you received it.

Move between foreign countries. If you move between foreign countries and you qualify for at least 120 days during the tax year under the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test, the moving expense reimbursement that you must include in income is considered earned in the tax year of the move.

Move to U.S. If you move to the United States, the moving expense reimbursement that you must include in income is generally considered to be U.S. source income.

However, if under either an agreement between you and your employer or a statement of company policy that is reduced to writing before your move to the foreign country, your employer will reimburse you for your move back to the United States regardless of whether you continue to work for the employer, the includible reimbursement is considered compensation for past services performed in the foreign country. The includible reimbursement is considered earned in the tax year of the move if you qualify under the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test for at least 120 days during that tax year. Otherwise, you treat the includible reimbursement as received for services performed in the foreign country in the year of the move and the year immediately before the year of the move.

See the discussion under Move from U.S. to foreign country (earlier) to figure the amount of the includible reimbursement considered earned in the year of the move. The amount earned in the year before the year of the move is the difference between the total includible reimbursement and the amount earned in the year of the move.

Example. You are a U.S. citizen employed in a foreign country. You retired from employment with your employer on March 31, 2000, and returned to the United States after having been a bona fide resident of the foreign country for several years. A written agreement with your employer entered into before you went abroad provided that you would be reimbursed for your move back to the United States.

In April 2000, your former employer reimbursed you $2,000 for the part of the cost of your move back to the United States that you were not allowed to deduct. Because you were not a bona fide resident for at least 120 days last year (the year of the move), the includible reimbursement is considered pay for services performed in the foreign country for both 2000 and 1999.

You figure the part of the moving expense reimbursement for services performed in the foreign country last year by multiplying the total includible reimbursement by a fraction. The fraction is the number of days of foreign residence during the year (90) divided by the number of days in the year (365 or 366). The remaining part of the includible reimbursement is for services performed in the foreign country in 1999. You report the amount of the includible reimbursement on your Form 1040 for 2000, the tax year you received it.

In this example, if you qualify to exclude income under the physical presence test instead of the bona fide residence test for last year, you may have had more than 120 qualifying days in the year of the move because you can choose the 12-month qualifying period that is most advantageous to you. (See Physical presence test, later, under Part-year exclusion.) If so, the moving expense reimbursement would be considered earned entirely in the year of the move (2000).

Storage expense reimbursements. If you are reimbursed for storage expenses, the reimbursement is for services you perform during the period you are in the foreign country.

U.S. Government Employees

For purposes of the foreign earned income exclusion and the foreign housing exclusion or deduction, foreign earned income does not include any amounts paid by the United States or any of its agencies to its employees. Payments to employees of nonappropriated fund activities are not foreign earned income. Nonappropriated fund activities include the following employers.

1. Armed forces post exchanges.
2. Officers' and enlisted personnel clubs.
3. Post and station theaters.
4. Embassy commissaries.

Amounts paid by the United States or its agencies to persons who are not their employees may qualify for exclusion or deduction.

If you are a U.S. Government employee paid by a U.S. agency that assigned you to a foreign government to perform specific services for which the agency is reimbursed by the foreign government, your pay is from the U.S. Government and does not qualify for the exclusion or deduction.

If you have questions about whether you are an employee or an independent contractor, get Publication 15-A, Employer's Supplemental Tax Guide.

Panama Canal Commission. U.S. employees of the Panama Canal Commission are employees of a U.S. Government agency and are not eligible for the foreign earned income exclusion on their salaries from that source. Furthermore, no provision of the Panama Canal Treaty or Agreement exempts their income from U.S. taxation. Employees of the Panama Canal Commission and civilian employees of the Defense Department of the United States stationed in Panama can exclude certain foreign-area and cost-of-living allowances. See Publication 516, U.S. Government Civilian Employees Stationed Abroad, for more information.

These employees cannot exclude any overseas tropical differential they receive.

American Institute in Taiwan. Amounts paid by the American Institute in Taiwan are not considered foreign earned income for purposes of the exclusion of foreign earned income or the exclusion or deduction of foreign housing amounts. If you are an employee of the American Institute in Taiwan, allowances you receive are exempt from U.S. tax up to the amount that equals tax-exempt allowances received by civilian employees of the U.S. Government.

Allowances. Cost-of-living and foreign-area allowances paid under certain Acts of Congress to U.S. civilian officers and employees stationed in Alaska and Hawaii or elsewhere outside the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia can be excluded from gross income. See Publication 516 for more information. Post differentials are wages that must be included in gross income, regardless of the Act of Congress under which they are paid.

Exclusion of Meals and Lodging

You do not include in your income the value of meals and lodging provided to you and your family by your employer at no charge if the following conditions are met.

1. The meals are:
   1. Furnished on the business premises of your employer, and
   2. Furnished for the convenience of your employer.
2. The lodging is:
   1. Furnished on the business premises of your employer,
   2. Furnished for the convenience of your employer, and
   3. A condition of your employment. (You are required to accept it).

Amounts you do not include in income because of these rules are not foreign earned income.

Family. Your family, for this purpose, includes only your spouse and your dependents.

Lodging. The value of lodging includes the cost of heat, electricity, gas, water, sewer service, and similar items needed to make the lodging fit to live in.

Business premises of employer. Generally, the business premises of your employer is wherever you work. For example, if you work as a housekeeper, meals and lodging provided in your employer's home are provided on the business premises of your employer. Similarly, meals provided to cowhands while herding cattle on land leased or owned by their employer are considered provided on the premises of their employer.

Convenience of employer. Whether meals or lodging are provided for your employer's convenience must be determined from all the facts. Meals or lodging provided to you and your family by your employer will be considered provided for your employer's convenience if there is a good business reason for providing the meals or lodging, other than to give you more pay.

If your employer has a good business reason for providing the meals or lodging, do not include their value in your income, even though your employer may also intend them as part of your pay. You can exclude the value of meals or lodging from your income even if a law or your employment contract says that they are provided as compensation.

On the other hand, if meals or lodging are provided to you or your family by your employer as a means of giving you more pay, and there is no other business reason for providing them, their value is extra income to you.

Condition of employment. Lodging is provided as a condition of employment if you must accept the lodging to properly carry out the duties of your job. You must accept lodging to properly carry out your duties if, for example, you must be available for duty at all times.

Foreign camps. If you are provided lodging by or for your employer in a camp located in a foreign country, the camp is considered to be part of your employer's business premises. For this purpose, a camp is lodging that is:

1. Provided for your employer's convenience because the place where you work is in a remote area where satisfactory housing is not available to you on the open market within a reasonable commuting distance,
2. Located as close as reasonably possible in the area where you render services, and
3. Provided in a common area or enclave that is not available to the general public for lodging or accommodations and that normally houses at least ten employees.

Previous | First | Next

Publication Index | 2000 Tax Help Archives | Tax Help Archives | Home