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Hi, Im an expat that has never before filled any taxes in the US, only in in my country of residence. How can I start?

 
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3 Replies
rjs
Level 15
Level 15

Hi, Im an expat that has never before filled any taxes in the US, only in in my country of residence. How can I start?

Do you mean that you are a U.S. citizen who left the U.S., moved to another country, and live in the other country? If you are a U.S. citizen you are subject to the same tax filing requirements as citizens who live in the U.S., no matter where you live. For how many years have you had income and not filed a U.S. tax return?


You can use the tool at the following link on the IRS web site to see if you are required to file a U.S. tax return.


Do I Need to File a Tax Return?

 

Hi, Im an expat that has never before filled any taxes in the US, only in in my country of residence. How can I start?

We need more facts.  Are you a US citizen?  When did you leave the US?  Did you give up your citizenship?

 

Generally, if you are a US citizen or green card holder, you are required to file a US tax return and pay US taxes on all your world-wide income, no matter where you are living when the income is earned or paid.  If you also pay foreign taxes on the same money, you can generally claim a credit or deduction for those taxes on your US return.  (As a practical matter, if you never return to the US, the IRS can't audit you or seize your accounts to pay the tax.  But if you plan to return, for visits or permanently, you probably need to get your situation in order.)

 

There are two other special rules I want to point out.  (There are probably even more rules, but these are the two I know.)

1. If you are overseas for more than 330 day per year, you can exclude your foreign earned income from US tax.  Earned income is income earned from working or providing goods or services.  You are still required to pay US tax on unearned income, such as investment and retirement income.  

 

2. There is a special rule for social security.  Depending on the country, and if you are retired, you can choose to pay tax on your social security in either the US (where it might be tax free) or your country of residence.  This gets tricky and we need more facts.

Hi, Im an expat that has never before filled any taxes in the US, only in in my country of residence. How can I start?

If you are a US Citizen and have never filed a US tax return (but should have been), you need to go to a US tax professional that specializes in this type of thing.  This is NOT a Do-It-Yourself project to fix the past.

 

After you have the prior year problems fixed and dealt with, then you might be able to do new returns on your own (depending on your circumstances; although TurboTax is not particularly friendly with non-US things).  But as I said before, for this year (current year and to fix the prior non-filed returns), you really, really need to go to a good tax professional that specializes in this type of thing.  

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