09/18/2026
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, […]
05/06/2026
Schedule SE is the IRS form used to calculate self-employment tax, and U.S. expats may need it even if their income tax bill ends up low or zero. In plain English: if you’re freelancing, consulting, or earning business income while living abroad, Schedule SE is the form that works out what you may owe for […]
05/06/2026
IRS Schedule 1 is a specific tax form where the “extra” bits of your tax return go. If you made freelance income, picked up gig work, or earned money on the side, this is often the form that suddenly appears and makes you wonder when your taxes became a group project. It attaches to Form […]
05/04/2026
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 […]
04/29/2026
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.
04/28/2026
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 […]
04/27/2026
Living abroad often blurs income lines: One client wires you funds directly, another pays via Wise, or a foreign firm calls you an “employee” but skips payroll taxes and treats you more like an independent contractor. This doesn’t raise any concern until tax season arrives and you suddenly realize that nothing fits your old U.S. […]
04/24/2026
Filing Form 1040 from overseas can feel more complicated than it should. U.S. expats still report worldwide income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). But deadlines stretch, exclusions like FEIE can wipe out your federal income tax bill, and extra schedules often come into play. Living abroad changes how taxable income, filing status, and credits […]
04/22/2026
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 […]
04/10/2026
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 […]