02/28/2019
Americans who move abroad are required to continue filing US taxes, reporting their worldwide income. This means that American citizens abroad often have to file two tax returns. The tax treaties that the US has with around 100 other countries don’t mitigate the risk of double taxation either, as they contain a ‘saving clause’ meaning […]
12/27/2018
American citizenship comes with rights and privileges, but also with an unusual obligation, in that all American citizens and green card holders, including expats, are required to file a federal tax return to the IRS every year, reporting their worldwide income. Many US expats are unaware of this obligation though, as it’s not logical, in […]
11/29/2018
All Americans (including green card holders) are required to file a federal tax return each year, reporting their worldwide income, irrespective of where in the world they live. This requirement is almost unique to America (most countries tax based on whether you live or have income or assets in the country), and as it’s perhaps […]
10/30/2018
Millions of U.S. expats are dismayed when they discover that they are required to file U.S. taxes from abroad, reporting their worldwide income. Many expats quite reasonably assume that once they live abroad, they no longer have to file U.S. taxes, or perhaps that they are protected by a tax treaty, or some may have […]
10/11/2018
Around 9 million Americans live abroad, with the number continually rising as more and more people take advantage of the opportunity to live, work, and retire abroad. Many aren’t aware though that the U.S. requires all American citizens and green card holders to file a U.S. tax return every year wherever in the world they […]
09/13/2018
The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, or OVDP, was launched in 2009 to allow Americans who weren’t compliant with their US tax obligations to come forward, pay any US tax they owed, and gain immunity from prosecution. To date, some 56,000 taxpayers have used the program, with numbers peaking at 18,000 in 2011. In 2017, just […]
08/27/2018
American expats sometimes become so engrossed in the incredible experience of living abroad that they forget to fulfill their US tax filing obligations. Many expats aren’t even aware that they are required to file US taxes from abroad, reporting their worldwide income, often as well as having to file a tax return in the country […]
07/26/2018
When American expats discover that they are required to file US taxes from abroad, the idea that they should have to file two tax returns, in the country where they reside as well as to the IRS, seems incredible. The US tax system has been this way since the Civil War though, requiring all Americans […]
06/28/2018
US taxes reporting their worldwide income. Perhaps counterintuitively, this includes Americans living abroad, assuming that they are either a US citizen or green card holder and that their income level meets the minimum threshold ($10,000 a year, or just $400 of self-employment income). Since 2016, when FATCA (the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) came […]
05/24/2018
US citizens are required to report their worldwide income to the IRS by filing a federal tax return each year, regardless of whether they live in the US or abroad, whether they are paying foreign taxes or not, or whether they live in a country which has a tax treaty with the US or not. […]