Which documents prove where you lived

A count of your days is only as strong as the papers behind it. If a tax office asks where you lived, often years later, it is up to you to show it. These are the documents that do, roughly from strongest to weakest.

Where you stayed

These show that you had somewhere to live, and for how long:

• Rental contracts, with the dates, the address and your name, and the receipts or transfers for the rent.
• Hotel and short stay bills (hotels, Airbnb, Booking and similar), with your name and the dates of each stay. Download the invoice, not only the booking email.
• Utility, internet and phone bills at the address, if they are in your name.
• A residence registration, if you registered at a local town hall or population register.

How you travelled

These mark the days you arrived and left:

• Flight, train, bus and ferry tickets, and boarding passes where you have them.
• Passport stamps and visas. Borders inside the Schengen area do not stamp passports, so trips between those countries need the other proofs on this page.

Your daily life

These fill the days in between, and are hard to fake:

• Card and bank statements, which place you in a country on each day you paid.
• Coworking, gym or school memberships and their invoices.
• Medical and pharmacy bills, and local insurance.
• Work contracts and client invoices that name where the work was done.

A certificate of tax residence

The strongest proof of where you are resident is a certificate from the tax office of that country, often called a certificate of tax residence. You usually need one to claim the benefits of a tax treaty, such as lower tax withheld abroad. Ask for it once you are resident somewhere: it is issued per year, and getting one for a past year can take time.

How to keep them

• Keep the original file: the PDF from the landlord, hotel or airline, not a screenshot or a forwarded email.
• Keep them by year and by stay, so the document for each stay is found in seconds. A clear file name with the date helps.
• Keep them for long enough. Many tax offices can look back five years or more, longer in some cases. Ask your adviser how long yours can.
• Keep a copy outside your laptop and phone: devices get lost on the road.

With Nomad Life

In Nomad Life every stay has its own receipts: rental contracts, hotel bills and flight tickets sit next to the dates they prove, together with your count of days per country. When your accountant asks, the accountant package (on paid plans) puts it all in one file: a PDF summary of the year, the stays, and every receipt. See how to count your days to build the record they belong to.

This guide explains general rules to help you ask the right questions. It is not tax or legal advice: rules change and differ by country, so check your own situation with a tax adviser.