Tax Rules and Compliance

Extra income sounds like a win until you start wondering how much of it the IRS will keep. A raise, bonus, freelance project, or overseas income can all change the rate that applies to your highest dollars. That is where marginal tax rates come into play. Your marginal tax rate is the rate applied to […]

Americans abroad often pay tax where they live and still have to file with the IRS. The Foreign Tax Credit exists for that overlap. It can reduce your U.S. tax bill when you’ve paid eligible income tax to another country, making it especially useful for expats in higher-tax countries. But it isn’t a blanket credit […]

Two Americans abroad can earn the same income and still need different tax strategies. One may save more with the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which excludes qualifying foreign earnings from taxable income. The other may do better with the Foreign Tax Credit, which reduces U.S. tax based on eligible foreign taxes paid. For 2026, the […]

New country, new bank account, new tax system. Same annual hello from the IRS. For Americans living abroad, U.S. tax obligations often continue long after the moving boxes are unpacked. U.S. citizens, green card holders, and some resident aliens still need to file a federal income tax return, even when they earn income in a […]

Selling investments abroad can already feel like enough paperwork for one lifetime. You sell the asset, report the gain, brace yourself for the capital gains tax, and think you’ve reached the end of the story. Then the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, shows up with a second calculator. AMT is a parallel U.S. tax calculation […]

Leaving New York doesn’t automatically mean you’re done with New York income taxes. Even after moving abroad, you can still be treated as a resident — and taxed like one — depending on how your ties to the state are structured.  This is because the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance applies its […]

There’s no single IRS exchange rate for every expat tax situation. Convenient? No. Manageable? Yes. The right rate depends on what you’re reporting: income, a foreign bank account, an asset sale, foreign taxes paid, or a capital gain. U.S. tax forms want everything in dollars, while your actual life may be happening in euros, pesos, […]

FBAR filing comes down to one key question: did the combined value of your foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 at any point during the year? If so, you may need to report them — even if no single account ever crossed that threshold on its own. The important thing to know is that FBAR isn’t […]