How to Document Presence for an Audit

Puerto Rico bona fide residency is one of the few tax positions where the central fact is a number you either recorded as it happened or did not. Examiners know this. The Internal Revenue Service has run a compliance campaign focused on individuals claiming Act 22 and Act 60 benefits, and presence is the natural first line of inquiry because it is objective and because so many taxpayers cannot substantiate it.

The good news is that a strong presence file is not complicated. It is just something you have to build continuously.

Why reconstruction fails

The default approach is to wait until a question arrives and then rebuild the year from email and card statements. It fails for predictable reasons. Gaps look like absences: if you have no record for eleven days in March, those days do not default to Puerto Rico. Reconstruction is unverifiable, because a spreadsheet assembled in 2029 for tax year 2026 carries no evidence that it reflects anything other than the answer you needed. And memory is optimistic in a consistent direction, remembering the trips you meant to take rather than the two extra days you stayed.

The alternative is a contemporaneous record: a log entry created at or near the time, ideally with a timestamp you did not author, backed by independent third party data.

The layers of a defensible file

Think of the file as layers that corroborate each other rather than one master document.

Travel records

• Flight itineraries, e-tickets, and boarding passes for every segment, including short regional hops
• Ferry and boat tickets
• Passport stamps and, where available, official travel history
• Airline account travel history exports, which are hard to backdate
• Car rental agreements and mileage records for mainland trips

Location-anchored transaction data

• Credit and debit card statements showing merchant location, especially small routine purchases such as groceries, fuel, pharmacies, and coffee
• ATM withdrawals
• Toll and transit records

Routine, low-value, high-frequency transactions are more persuasive than large ones. A daily coffee in Santurce places you in Puerto Rico more convincingly than a single hotel charge.

Residence and utility evidence

• Lease, deed, or closing documents for the Puerto Rico residence
• Electricity and water bills showing usage patterns consistent with occupancy
• Internet and mobile phone bills, with usage or roaming records where you can get them
• Home security or smart device logs, which often carry precise timestamps

Local life evidence

This layer serves the closer connection test more than the presence test, but examiners read the file as a whole. Include Puerto Rico driver license, voter registration, vehicle registration, local bank accounts, physician and dentist records, school enrollment for children, gym and club memberships, professional and civic affiliations, and charitable giving to Puerto Rico organizations. See presence test vs tax home vs closer connection for why those three categories need separate evidence.

The day log itself

A dated record with one row per day: location, arrival and departure times where relevant, flight number, and a category for the day. Categories should distinguish actual Puerto Rico presence from the constructive categories, because you may need to defend each on different grounds. The mechanics of those categories are in what counts as a day in Puerto Rico.

Documenting the special day categories

The constructive presence categories carry their own evidentiary requirements, and they are the ones most likely to be challenged, because they turn absences into presence.

Medical absence days. Publication 570 sets the requirements out explicitly. Keep records showing the patient name and relationship to you, the name and address of the hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, the name, address, and telephone number of the treating physician, the dates of treatment, and receipts of payment. Add a signed certification from the providing or supervising physician stating the patient name, a reasonably detailed description of the treatment, the dates, and the medical facts supporting the determination that it was medically necessary. You must be able to produce this within 30 days of a request from the Commissioner or the Puerto Rico tax authority, so assemble it at the time of treatment.

Disaster and evacuation days. Keep the Federal Emergency Management Agency notice or Federal Register citation for the declaration, or the text and dates of the mandatory evacuation order, together with evidence that your main home is in the affected geographic area and evidence of your departure or inability to return.

The 30-day travel allowance. Keep the travel records showing you were outside both Puerto Rico and the United States, and keep the underlying counts that show your Puerto Rico days exceeded your United States days without the allowance. The allowance is conditional, so the condition needs its own proof.

Transit days. For a mainland connection you are excluding under the under-24-hours transit rule, keep both flight segments with times. The exclusion depends on the elapsed time, so the times are the evidence.

Form 8898 and the year you change status

Form 8898 is the statement for individuals who begin or end bona fide residence in a United States territory. You must file it for the tax year in which your worldwide gross income exceeds $75,000 and you take the position that you became a bona fide resident of a territory, or that you ceased to be one, in the circumstances Publication 570 describes.

Publication 570 states that failing to file, or filing without all required information or with incorrect information, may trigger a $1,000 penalty unless the failure is due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, and that this is in addition to any criminal penalty that may apply. Part III of the form asks the closer connection questions directly, so the answers you give there should be consistent with the file you are building.

The first year has its own complications. Moving mid-year: your first partial year covers them.

Practical habits that make the file work

Log the day, not the trip. Trips get summarized. Days get counted.

Record times, not just dates. Arrival and departure times decide arrival days, transit exclusions, and same-day dual-presence questions.

Keep source documents, not summaries. An itinerary PDF beats a spreadsheet line saying the itinerary existed.

Reconcile monthly. Checking a month against card statements while you remember it takes ten minutes. Doing three years at once produces guesses.

Never edit history silently. Correct a wrong day with a note explaining why. An edit trail is credible; a clean file with no history is not.

Where One83 fits

One83 keeps the day-by-day record contemporaneously, tags each day with its category, and preserves when each entry was made rather than only its current value. When an advisor or an examiner asks how a total was reached, the answer is a dated record with categories and attachments rather than a number.

It does not assemble your physician certifications, take positions on your closer connection facts, or file your Form 8898. Those belong to you and your advisor. What it removes is the scenario where the underlying facts were fine and the evidence was not.

For the thresholds this evidence is marshaled against, see the 183-day rule, explained, and for the trips that generate the most ambiguous entries, see ferries, cruises and day trips.

Frequently asked questions

What records prove I was in Puerto Rico on a given day?

No single record does it. A defensible file layers independent sources for the same day: flight itineraries and boarding passes, passport or airline travel history, card transactions with merchant location, utility and telecom usage, lease or mortgage records, and a contemporaneous day log. Sources that agree are far more persuasive than one source that is merely complete.

Do I need to file Form 8898?

You must file it for the tax year in which your worldwide gross income exceeds $75,000 and you take the position that you became, or ceased to be, a bona fide resident of a United States territory.

What documentation does a medical absence require?

Records of the patient name and relationship to you, the facility name and address, the treating physician name, address, and telephone number, the treatment dates, and receipts of payment, plus a signed physician certification. You must be able to produce it within 30 days of a request.

How long should I keep presence records?

Longer than a normal return retention window. The 549-day condition reaches back three tax years, the year-of-move relief depends on the three years before and the three after, and audits arrive years later.

Is a calendar app enough?

Rarely. A calendar records intent rather than presence, and it is editable after the fact with no history. It is useful as one corroborating layer alongside travel records and transaction data, but on its own it is the weakest evidence you can bring.

Disclaimer

One83 is a presence tracking tool, not a tax advisor, and this guide is general information rather than tax advice. Audit exposure and documentation adequacy depend on your specific facts. Consult a licensed tax professional experienced with Internal Revenue Code section 937 and Puerto Rico Act 60, and see IRS Publication 570 and the Form 8898 instructions for the official requirements.