Trying to figure out rules around FBAR and FTC vs FEIE
It's the time of year where I stress over my taxes. I have always filed using 2555 FEIE. I live in the UK and have been filing my taxes for the last 6 years at least. I did find out after living here for a few years I needed to file the taxes and did file the previous years at the time and have had no problems.
Well several years have gone by and now another stress has come up. First, I didn't know work pensions counted towards a foreign account. As I've never had much of a savings (Under $2k) at all and only had a current(debit account) besides that, I never thought I had enough for any filings in regards of FBAR. I'm not great at tracking work place pensions and just now realized these count towards that and that I have more then I realized between several work places. As far as I can find I have 5 policies over several employers (I know I should get these combined).
The problem now is I need to try and track down all this information and I'm feeling overwhelmed. To clarify the requirement, I need policy numbers for each, the highest value for each year? I also need to do that with my savings and my debit accounts for each year? And when filing the late FBAR, am I just honest and say I didn't know my pensions were worth that much and I didn't know these were meant to be reported?
Also, as I've always used the FEIE, I've never looked at the FTC. I have a son now who is dual citizen. Looking at things, I can apparently qualify for a Child Tax Credit if I file using FTC over FEIE. I tested this on OLT and it seems to be correct, but is it worth the hassle and stress of moving to FTC, especially as I need to the FBAR stuff?
Can someone talk me down? I swear, it gets more complicated every year, and if I had the money I would hire someone, but they cost so much money and I don't know who to trust.