Tax Rules and Compliance

It’s not always easy to get detailed information about green cards. The US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) website can be technical and dense, which may leave you even more confused. As a dedicated tax firm for US immigrants and Americans abroad, we’re well familiar with green cards — so we’ve put together a brief, easy-to-understand guide.

Living abroad doesn’t exempt you from filing a U.S. federal income tax return, but it can complicate the details. One of the most common issues expats run into has nothing to do with foreign income or tax credits – it’s identification.  If your spouse or dependent doesn’t have a Social Security number (SSN), you may […]

Many Americans living abroad rely on the Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) to prevent double taxation. You pay foreign income tax to your country of residence and then claim a credit to reduce your U.S. tax liability on the same foreign source income when you file your U.S. income tax return. But here’s where many expats […]

Transferring money internationally sounds simple right up until the fees, exchange rates, and “small” charges start quietly taking bites out of the total. For expats, those losses add up fast. Rent, family support, savings transfers, mortgage payments—when money crosses borders regularly, the difference between a decent transfer and a bad one can mean hundreds or […]

Sending money to family—or receiving help from them—often feels like a personal, no-strings-attached decision. Just a transfer, a gift, a bit of support across borders. But when you’re a U.S. taxpayer, those transfers don’t always stay personal. The IRS has its own definition of what counts as a “gift,” along with limits, reporting rules, and […]

A lot of people assume a green card mostly matters for immigration. And then tax season rolls around, they’re living abroad, earning abroad, maybe paying tax abroad—and the U.S. still expects a return. That’s because for tax purposes, green card holders are generally treated like U.S. tax residents, even when they live overseas. In other […]

So you’ve moved abroad—traded in your U.S. zip code for a new country, a new life, maybe even a better coffee. But one thing you didn’t leave behind? The IRS. U.S. citizens are taxed on their worldwide income, no matter where they live. The good news: Uncle Sam does throw expats a couple of lifelines. […]

Sometimes, the only thing more overwhelming than realizing you forgot to file something is figuring out how to fix it without making it worse. If you’ve left foreign bank accounts off your FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts), but all your foreign income was already reported on your U.S. tax return, the IRS […]

Let’s be honest: the words “Streamlined Filing Procedures” sound like something dreamed up by a government agency determined to make sure you never find out what they actually are. But underneath the bureaucratic name is something surprisingly kind: a rare opportunity from the IRS to say, “Hey, if you didn’t know you were supposed to […]

You didn’t mean to ghost the IRS. You were living abroad, focused on life, work, maybe even figuring out the local coffee order—and didn’t realize that your foreign bank account or overseas rental income came with U.S. tax obligations. Now you’ve discovered terms like “FBAR” and “foreign financial assets,” and it feels like a tax […]