Expat Tax Services

The IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures are designed for this exact situation. Eligible non-willful filers catch up by filing three years of tax returns and six years of FBARs, along with a signed non-willfulness certification. For most foreign residents, this results in zero penalties — just the back tax and interest (often minimal). The program requires you to meet the "foreign residency" test (330 days abroad in one of the three years) and that your failure was non-willful.

You must meet either the Physical Presence Test (330 full days outside the U.S. during any 12-month period) or the Bona Fide Residence Test (established tax-home residency in a foreign country for at least one full tax year with no intent to return imminently). Physical Presence is pure day-counting; Bona Fide Residence is a facts-and-circumstances test. You can switch between them year to year as long as you qualify.

$126,500 for tax year 2024 (the amount is adjusted annually for inflation). Married couples where both spouses qualify can each claim their own exclusion. There's also a housing exclusion on top of the income exclusion for high-cost cities (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Zurich, etc.), which can add substantial additional exclusion capacity.

You have options. Filing as Married Filing Separately means you only report your own income but lose access to some tax benefits. Making the Section 6013(g) election to treat your foreign spouse as a U.S. resident lets you file Married Filing Jointly — which often produces a much better result, but subjects your spouse's worldwide income to U.S. tax for that year and all future years unless the election is revoked. I run the numbers both ways before filing.

The FEIE does not exclude self-employment tax. If you're a U.S. citizen self-employed abroad, you still generally owe 15.3% self-employment tax on your net self-employment income — even if all the income is excluded from income tax by the FEIE. Exception: if you live in a country with a U.S. totalization agreement and you contribute to that country's social insurance system, you can usually claim exemption from U.S. self-employment tax.

Only if you have earned income that isn't excluded by FEIE. If 100% of your foreign earned income is excluded under FEIE, you generally have zero "compensation" for IRA purposes and cannot make an IRA contribution that year. This is a common and unwelcome surprise. Planning around it often involves choosing Foreign Tax Credit over FEIE (which leaves compensation on the return and allows IRA contributions) or coordinating with a spouse's earned income.

Complicated and country-specific. UK SIPPs and Canadian RRSPs have treaty protection. Australian superannuation is debated. Most other countries' employer pensions are recognized but taxed differently. The key is identifying what you have and understanding how the U.S. treats it — which is different from how your host country treats it.

Remotely, via secure client portal and video calls arranged around your time zone. I have clients on every continent and document exchange has no geographic constraints. The engagement takes the same amount of calendar time for a client in Bangkok as for a client in Chicago.