Comparison

Tax Days vs. TaxBird: which residency tracker is right for you?

TaxBird and Tax Days both target snowbirds and cross-border residents. Here's an honest comparison on price, jurisdictions, GPS, privacy, and audit support.

7 min read

TaxBird is the snowbird-tracking app that pioneered the category for individuals. Tax Days takes the same problem to a wider audience: international rules alongside the US states, automatic tracking that's optional rather than mandatory, and half the price. Here's a head-to-head.

Pricing

Tax DaysTaxBird
Annual cost$19.99/year~$59.99/year
Free tierYes (limited rules)Trial only

Tracking philosophy

  • TaxBird: uses background GPS by default. Auto-detects state changes as you cross borders.
  • Tax Days: automatic background tracking on Pro, or manual entry in 5 seconds, your choice. Automatic mode uses battery-efficient significant-change monitoring and proposes trips for you to confirm.

Continuous GPS is convenient on the days it works. It's also battery-intensive, can miss state crossings on long road trips, and builds a continuous location dataset on the vendor's servers. Tax Days splits those trade-offs apart: significant-change monitoring costs far less battery than continuous GPS, the trail stays on your iPhone rather than a server, and proposed trips get confirmed by you rather than silently written. If you'd rather grant no location access at all, manual entry takes about 5 seconds a trip and remains a first-class mode.

Rule coverage

Tax DaysTaxBird
US statesAll 50 with state-specific rulesAll 50
Federal SPTYes (3-year weighted)Limited
Schengen 90/180YesNo
UK SRTYesNo
International30+ countriesUS-focused

This is the practical difference: TaxBird is a great snowbird app for purely-domestic Americans. If your travel includes Europe, Asia, or anywhere else international, Tax Days is the only one of the two that helps.

Privacy and data

  • Tax Days: all data on your iPhone (SwiftData). Optional iCloud sync via Apple CloudKit. We have no servers and no access.
  • TaxBird: data syncs to TaxBird's servers; account-based.

Platforms

  • Tax Days: iPhone only (iOS 26+). Mac via Catalyst.
  • TaxBird: iOS, Android, web.

Audit support

  • Tax Days: PDF export per state, including raw trips and rule evaluations.
  • TaxBird: reports and PDF export.

Who each is for

TaxBird is best for: Android users, people who want a web dashboard, and US-only snowbirds who don't need international rules.

Tax Days is best for: iPhone users, anyone with international travel patterns, anyone who wants 0% data on a vendor's server, and anyone who'd rather pay $20/year than $60.

If you're an international traveler, even occasionally, Tax Days is the only one of the two that runs the 90/180 Schengen calculation, the UK SRT, and 30+ international rules.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Tax Days cheaper than TaxBird?

Yes. Tax Days is $19.99 per year with a free tier for limited rules, while TaxBird runs about $59.99 per year with a trial rather than a permanent free tier.

Does TaxBird track international rules like Schengen or the UK SRT?

No. TaxBird is US-focused: it covers all 50 states but not the Schengen 90/180 window or the UK Statutory Residence Test. Tax Days covers all 50 states plus the federal Substantial Presence Test, Schengen, the UK SRT, and international country rules.

Which app is better for privacy?

Tax Days keeps all data on your iPhone with optional iCloud sync through Apple's CloudKit, and has no servers of its own, so even with auto-tracking enabled the location history stays on the device. TaxBird is account-based and syncs your data to its servers, and its background GPS creates a continuous location dataset there.

Does Tax Days use GPS like TaxBird?

It can, but it works differently and it's optional. TaxBird uses continuous background GPS to auto-detect state changes, which is convenient but battery-intensive and syncs a location trail to its servers. Tax Days offers automatic tracking on Pro using significant-change monitoring, which costs far less battery, proposes trips for you to confirm, and keeps the history on your iPhone. Manual entry takes a few seconds per trip and remains available if you'd rather grant no location access.

When is TaxBird the better choice?

TaxBird makes sense for Android users and people who want a web dashboard. Tax Days is iPhone-only, so platform can be the deciding factor, but on automation the two are now comparable and Tax Days costs half as much.

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