Hey everyone, I’m a Freiburg fan looking for a place to watch the Europa League Final this Wednesday.
I’m trying to avoid the Irish pubs (O'Reilly's, etc.) as they’ll be overrun with Villa fans. Looking for a local spot with more of a German/Bundesliga atmosphere.
Any suggestions for a SCF fan? :)
Hi everyone,
I’m 25 and my two sisters are 23 and 21. We are hoping someone here has been in our shoes and can offer some guidance because we are completely overwhelmed. We really have already tried to research and read everything, so please be kind.
Here is our situation:
We were all born in the US to German parents, meaning we are automatically US citizens regardless of where we currently live. We all would like to keep our US Citizenship. We have all been living in Germany for over 10 years now.
We all earn way less than $100k a year.
We file our German tax returns perfectly fine, but we recently learned that the US taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, no matter their residency.
This means we are fundamentally obligated to file an annual income tax return in the US, even though we live and pay taxes in Germany.
Because we honestly had no idea about this and unknowingly neglected our US tax duties, we researched and found out about the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures. This is an IRS program specifically designed to help US citizens abroad who have unintentionally neglected their tax obligations.
We know that to use this program, we need to file tax returns for the last three years. We gathered the forms we need, but we are failing on the very first pages.
We know we are recommended to consult a professional tax advisor who knows international tax law, but we simply do not have the money to pay for a professional right now.
Here is the paperwork we have been trying (and failing) to fill out for the past year:
•Form 1040 & 1040-X: We know as US citizens we have to fill out
•Form 2555 (Foreign Earned Income Exclusion): We are trying to use this because we want to exclude our foreign earned income from US taxes. Since we earn under $100k, we are well below the $126,500 exclusion limit.
•Form 1116 (Foreign Tax Credit): We also looked at this to credit the taxes we already paid in Germany against any US tax liability to avoid double taxation.
•Form 14653: We need to submit this to certify that we reside outside the US and that our failure to file was not intentional.
•FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR): We read that we have to submit this electronically for the last six years to report our foreign bank accounts. We need to file this annually if our foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in value.
Has anyone successfully navigated the Streamlined Procedures and these specific forms on their own? How do we even begin to fill these out without making a massive mistake? Any step-by-step advice for absolute beginners would be a lifesaver.
Thank you so much in advance!