Ohio's 212 Contact-Period Residency Rule
Ohio does not count days the way most states do. It counts contact periods, which are essentially overnights. More than 212 of them in a calendar year makes you a presumed Ohio resident.
Last verified: July 2026
In short: Ohio measures your presence in contact periods, not calendar days. A contact period is basically an overnight: you are away overnight from a home outside Ohio and present for part of two consecutive days in the state. Have more than 212 contact periods (213 or more) in a calendar year and you are presumed to be an Ohio resident. To be presumed a nonresident you need 212 or fewer contact periods, an abode outside Ohio for the whole year, and a filed Affidavit of Non-Ohio Residency.
- Threshold
- More than 212 contact periods
- What it counts
- Overnights, not days
- Counting window
- Calendar year
- A contact period is
- Overnight + part of 2 consecutive days in Ohio
- Effect at 213+
- Presumed Ohio resident
- Also required for nonresidency
- Abode outside Ohio + affidavit
- Legal basis
- Ohio Rev. Code §5747.24
The rule
Most states with a day-count residency test treat any part of a day in the state as a full day. Ohio works differently. Under Ohio Rev. Code §5747.24, your presence is measured in contact periods, and the test is built as a presumption rather than a hard resident line:
- 212 or fewer contact periods. If you also keep at least one abode outside Ohio for the entire year and file the required affidavit, you are presumed not to be domiciled in Ohio.
- More than 212 contact periods. Reaching 213 or more contact periods (or lacking an out-of-state abode) means you are presumed to be domiciled in Ohio for the whole year, and taxed as a resident.
Because it is a presumption, the outcome can be argued the other way with evidence, but crossing the 212 line moves the burden onto you. The threshold is what the app tracks: stay at or below 212 contact periods and the day-count side of the test is satisfied.
How to count it
A contact period is not a calendar day. You have one contact period when you are away overnight from your home outside Ohio and spend at least some part, however minimal, of each of two consecutive days in Ohio. In practice that means an overnight stay in the state creates a contact period; a single daytime visit with no overnight does not.
- Identify each overnight where you were away from your abode outside Ohio.
- For each such overnight, check whether you were present in Ohio for part of both the day before and the day after that night.
- If so, count it as one contact period. Contact periods do not need to be consecutive.
- Add them across the whole calendar year. At 213 or more you are presumed to be an Ohio resident for that year.
Example. You live in Kentucky but travel into Ohio often for work. On many trips you drive in for the day and go home the same evening. Those daytime visits do not create contact periods, because you were not away overnight.
On other trips you stay overnight in a Columbus hotel, present in Ohio on both the arrival and departure days. Each of those is one contact period. If those overnights add up to 213 or more across the year, Ohio presumes you were domiciled in the state, even though your daytime-only visits never counted.
Beyond the day count
Contact periods are only the mechanical part. The underlying question in Ohio is domicile, meaning where your true, fixed home is. The contact-period presumption is a shortcut for that broader test, and the Ohio Supreme Court has held that meeting the bright-line count does not by itself settle domicile if the wider facts point the other way. Two practical points follow: keeping an abode outside Ohio for the entire year is part of the nonresident presumption, and you must file the Affidavit of Non-Ohio Residency with the Department of Taxation by its deadline. Miss the affidavit and Ohio can presume you were domiciled in the state for the whole year regardless of your contact-period count.
Official source: Ohio Rev. Code §5747.24, explained on the Ohio Department of Taxation Ohio Residency page, which describes the contact-period test.
AtlasDays tracks Ohio's contact-period rule automatically
Log your trips once. AtlasDays counts your Ohio contact periods (overnights, not days) for each calendar year, privately on your iPhone, and warns you before you cross the 212 line.
Get AtlasDays on the App StoreFAQ
How many contact periods can you have in Ohio without being a presumed resident?
Up to 212 in the calendar year. At 213 or more contact periods you are presumed to be an Ohio resident. Staying a presumed nonresident also requires an abode outside Ohio for the whole year and a filed Affidavit of Non-Ohio Residency.
What is a contact period, and how is it different from a day?
A contact period is essentially an overnight: you are away overnight from your home outside Ohio and present for part of each of two consecutive days in the state. A daytime-only visit with no overnight does not create a contact period, which is unlike an any-part-of-a-day count.
Do you have to file anything to be treated as an Ohio nonresident?
Yes. Even with 212 or fewer contact periods and a home outside Ohio, the nonresident presumption depends on filing the Affidavit of Non-Ohio Residency on time. Miss it and Ohio can presume you were domiciled in the state for the entire year.