Tax Rules and Compliance

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, […]

You may need to file an FBAR if your foreign financial accounts held more than $10,000 combined at any point during the year. That’s across your accounts—not $10,000 in each—and the requirement applies even if you owe no U.S. tax. Here at Bright!Tax, we see how easily this gets overlooked. You’ve filed your tax return, […]

Miss the tax filing deadline? Take a breath. What happens next mostly comes down to one thing: whether you owe money or whether you’re due a tax refund. That distinction matters. If the IRS owes you, the situation is usually less painful. But if you owe unpaid federal income tax, leaving it too long can […]

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.