Tracking travel days for tax purposes is one of those things that seems simple until you actually try to do it. You think you’ll remember where you were and when, but six months later you’re digging through flight confirmations trying to figure out if you spent 182 or 184 days somewhere.

Colombia has a 183-day rolling residency test, which means if you spend more than half the year there, you’re considered tax resident. For high earners, that’s a problem because of how Colombia taxes worldwide income. I’ve been tracking my own days in spreadsheets for years, and even knowing my way around formulas, it’s surprisingly fragile. Miss one timezone conversion, forget to log a weekend trip, and your count is off. By the time you catch it during tax season, you’re already planning next quarter’s travel and scrambling to reconstruct your movements from Airbnb receipts.

That’s why we built TripLedger.

How it works

You log your trips, and TripLedger counts the days using the methods that actually matter for tax residency. Different countries use different counting rules, and the tool handles all of them.

The Midnight Rule is how most countries count. If you were physically present at midnight, that day counts toward residency. The Any Presence method is stricter. Set foot in the country for even an hour, and some jurisdictions count it as a full day.

Then there’s the time period question. Tax residency isn’t always based on calendar years. Colombia, the UK, and several other countries use rolling 12-month windows, which means your residency status can change throughout the year depending on when you calculate it.

The tool handles timezone math automatically. If you land in Bogotá at 11:45 PM, it knows whether that counts as one day or two based on local time. These edge cases matter when you’re close to a threshold.

Gap detection and data integrity

One of the biggest problems with manual tracking is forgetting to log trips. TripLedger flags timeline gaps so you’re not guessing what you did in March when tax season hits. If there’s a 5-day gap between when one journey ended and another began, the system asks you to account for it.

Why it’s free

Core features (journey tracking, residency calculations, gap detection) will always be free. We might add a pro tier later with budgeting and planning tools, but the foundation you need to stay compliant stays free. No catch, just a tool that solves the problem.

This is a beta

This is the first public version. It works (we use it ourselves to track our own travel), but expect some rough edges. If something breaks or feels off, we’ll fix it.

Try it out today. Log your trips and see where you stand on residency thresholds.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information and is not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional for your specific situation.