How many days can you actually spend in Florida?

The part nobody explains: it's a three-year count

The IRS doesn't just look at this year. The test, it's called the substantial presence test, adds up three years:¹

• all the days you were here this year, plus
• one third of your days last year, plus
• one sixth of your days the year before

If that total hits 183, and you were here at least 31 days this year, the IRS treats you as a U.S. tax resident.

Read that again, because this is where people get caught. You are not being measured on this winter. You're being measured on three winters at once.

So what's the real number?

Here's the arithmetic nobody does for you.

If you come down for the same length of stay every year, the formula collapses to something simple. Your days, plus a third, plus a sixth: that's your days multiplied by 1.5.

So: 1.5 × your annual days must stay under 183.

Which means your actual limit, if you're a consistent winter visitor, is about 122 days a year. Not 183. About 122.²

Look at the four-month row. "I come down for four months every winter" is the most common pattern there is, and it lands at 180 out of 183. That's three days of margin across three years. One long visit for a grandchild's graduation and you're over.

This is the single most useful thing on this page. If you're planning a repeating annual stay, your working number is about 120 days, not six months.

Note that this is a tax test, not an immigration one. Your visitor allowance at the border (90 days on an ESTA for most Europeans, up to six months for Canadians and B-2 visa holders) is a separate limit, and staying within it doesn't keep you under this one.

What happens if you go over

You're treated as a U.S. tax resident for that year, which means the IRS expects a return on your worldwide income, not just what you earn here. For most people that's a paperwork problem before it's a money problem, because of the treaty and the foreign tax credits, but it's a large paperwork problem and it's one you want to avoid.

The closer connection exception: Form 8840

If the three-year count puts you over 183 but you were here fewer than 183 actual days this year, you can file Form 8840 to tell the IRS your real home is somewhere else. Your tax home, your family, your bank, your driver's licence, your doctor: all in your own country. Most winter visitors qualify comfortably.³

Three things about it:

1. It's due by 15 June of the following year. Canadians and Europeans who spend the winter here file it every spring as a matter of routine.⁴
2. Not filing is itself the penalty. If you don't file it on time, you lose the exception for that year, even if you'd have qualified.
3. It has a hard ceiling. At 183 actual days or more in a single year, the exception isn't available at all. Then a cross-border accountant can use the tax treaty instead, which is a little more paperwork but well-trodden.⁵

What we suggest

Pick your number and keep a record. A calendar, a note on your phone, the boarding passes. Count the day you arrive and the day you leave; both count. Aim at 120 if you come every year, and if a year runs long, know it in March, not in June.

File the 8840 every year you're close, on time, with your accountant's help the first time. After that it's twenty minutes.

A note on the other direction

If you eventually decide to spend most of your year in Florida, that's a wonderful plan with real advantages. It's simply a different plan, with tax consequences at home and immigration questions that an immigration attorney should answer.

We can introduce you to cross-border accountants and immigration attorneys who plan exactly this.

We're happy to look at your specific dates with you. It usually takes ten minutes. Contact us.