The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today issued two revenue procedures that provide guidance for certain individuals and businesses affected by travel disruptions due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The IRS explains these two pieces of guidance as follows:

• Revenue Procedure 2020-20 provides relief to certain nonresident individuals who, but for COVID-19 Emergency Travel Disruptions, would not have been in the United States long enough during 2020 to be considered resident aliens under the "substantial presence test" (SPT) or to be ineligible for treaty benefits on services income. With respect to the relief provided under the SPT, this revenue procedure establishes procedures to apply the SPT's medical condition exception to exclude up to 60 consecutive days spent in the United States during a time period starting on or after February 1, 2020 and on or before April 1, with the specific start date to be chosen by each individual (the "COVID-19 Emergency Period"). It also provides procedures for an individual to exclude those days of presence in order to claim benefits under an income tax treaty with respect to services income; and
• Revenue Procedure 2020-27 provides that The Secretary of the Treasury has determined that the global health emergency caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 is an adverse condition that precludes the normal conduct of business globally. Therefore, relief is being provided to any individual that reasonably expected to become a "qualified individual" for purposes of claiming the foreign earned income exclusion under section 911 but left the foreign jurisdiction during the period described in this revenue procedure. 

The IRS has also issued two FAQs on this issue that are posted here.

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