US Tax return for US citizins living abroad

Gold Member Joined: Jun 20 2004 Posts: 1269

I am wondering if it is possible to do the US TAX return for US citizins living abroad by your self or do you need an accountant. Did anyone here do it themselves? Or is anyone here an accountant who could advise me.

For those of you who have never done it the US government gives up to $1000 a year per child depending on your income. In most cases you do not need to pay taxes to the US if you paid them to the country you are living in.

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 29 2005 Posts: 3649

Full disclosure: My DH is a tax accountant.

There are people who do it themselves and people who take an accountant. Depends on your general financial situation - as in do you have lots of bank accounts in the US or Israel where you get interest or do you have dividend income, how much do you make, how old your kids are. Depends if you understand how to do the tax return or not. There are a few different ways to do it for US citizens abroad.

If you are doing it for the first time you might want to take an accountant and then if your status is similar the following year you might be able to do it on your own.

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 28 2005 Posts: 4693

I agree.

You should understand that if you are a US citizen, US taxes income worldwide so if you earn over the filing thresholds you are REQUIRED to file a US tax return. But, practically speaking you will likely owe no US tax on that income due to the foreign income exclusion. You may even benefit in the form of (certain) refundable credits.

Very important is the TDF 90-22.1 filing (due 6/30 of each year with no extensions) for foreign (non-US) accounts over $10,000 at any point during the year. It is a pretty easy informational form that you can file yourself, but compliance is important.

My husband's a US citizen and hasn't done US tax since we moved here almost 6 years ago. We're waiting to get some paperwork for my husband to register our kids as US citizens first and then he'll do them all at once. No idea how easy it is but he's studying accounting so hopefully he'll be able to do it himself.

ETA - No accounts over $10 000 so that has never been an issue. I don't know much about the US tax thing, that's his business.
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Diamond Member Joined: Mar 29 2005 Posts: 3649

If I'm not mistaken, you cannot get the credits more than 3 years retroactively.

Rodent, hope your DH can do it, but please be aware that not all accountants do tax returns; it is a specialty and if he's studying accounting in Australia, it will not teach him anything about doing US tax returns.

I'm aware of that, principles are the same, laws are not. I'm sure he'll manage. Just got to get the paperwork before we can sort everything out.

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My DH is a tax accountant (Disclosure) . You can go online to TurboTax and use their software service (for a fee). You can fill out the form and E-file as well. As long as your kids have social security numbers, you're fine. Good luck!