Section 911 Tax Home Requirement: What Counts as Your Tax Home Abroad

To claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, you must have your tax home in a foreign country during the period for which you're claiming the exclusion. Your tax home is generally defined as your regular or principal place of business, not where your family lives or where you consider your personal home to be. If you do not have a regular or principal place of business because of the nature of your work (such as traveling from client to client), your tax home is the place where you regularly live. A US citizen who keeps a home in the US and travels abroad for temporary work assignments generally does not qualify for the FEIE, because their tax home remains in the US even when they're physically present abroad. The tax home concept is separate from the Bona Fide Residence or Physical Presence Test: you must satisfy both the tax home requirement and one of the two residency tests to claim the FEIE.