r/USExpatTaxes

I hold a Canadian ETF since 2023 and did not file a timely QEF election. The ETF publishes annual information statements which are all zero values - no dividends, profit sharing, etc. I understand the rules around PFIC's are quite punishing. I'm looking for advice on the best way forward. Best case scenario is that I can amend prior year filings to include Form 8621 and move on from there. I'm hoping that is an option since I have never sold to realize gains and there are no dividend payments.

I am an non-US citizen currently in the U.S. on F-1. I am relocating to Ireland before the end of this year.

I have:

1. Taxable brokerage account in Fidelity

2. 401k with Fidelity

3. HSA again with Fidelity

4. U.S. bank accounts (Checking and HYSA)

I can be considered as either of non-resident or resident for tax purposes in Ireland for part year 2026.

This is what I plan on doing and would love to hear your thoughts:

1. Keep individual stocks in USA and liquidate ETFs due to crazy Irish taxation on ETFs (Deemed disposable).

2. Keep on holding 401k and let it grow tax free. I checked USA and Ireland have treaty for this.

3. I have small amount in HSA. Will sell mutual funds within HSA and just keep cash so that I can use in Ireland without the deemed disposable headache. Better to hold rather than losing almost 40% due to tax and penalty.

4. Planning on transferring all money to Ireland and will keep one checking account active in USA.

Any advice is appreciated!

First time poster! I am a silly, young, little idiot living abroad (Spain) who has not really thought about US tax responsibilities in the last few years. I’m filing late for 2024 and 2025 now 😅 there’s one thing I am super hung up on and confused about.

I opened a Roth IRA in 2024 and contributed the max amount. As mentioned, I didn’t file taxes for 2024 so this is a mistake that I have to correct now. My initial Google searches told me I should file using the FTC (1040 with 1116) so I could prove I had enough taxable income in 2024 to open the account. I also understand I need to pay a penalty for the years I’ve had the Roth open without having filed taxes by using form 5329? This was my plan but the late fees and amount I owe feels so disproportionately high to what I earned! So now I’m second guessing.

I am also reading mixed things on using the FEIE while having a Roth IRA. I initially thought you can’t use the FEIE in a year you contributed to a Roth because it means you’re claiming no US taxable income, but I also read that there are exceptions with Roth contributions for people living abroad and that your foreign earned income IS eligible? So now I’m confused if I’m causing myself all this trouble (and money!) with the FTCs for nothing.

Would love any help, I have been filling out forms by pencil for about 6 hours trying to understand 😩

*edit for more info: I am 27, single, live full time in Spain with a Spanish salary since 2022, my only US income is from brokerage accounts

Hello, I am a US citizen who will be living and working in Berlin on an EU blue card. I understand that for my income in Germany I will need to file an FTC to avoid double taxation in the US and Germany. However, I have a US-based Charles Schwab investment account that is attached to my old home address in the US - my parents' address - and I see that Germany has a flat tax of ~25% on all dividends and capital gains. I am curious if any other Americans in Germany have avoided disclosing their US-based investment accounts while living and working in Germany. I am not sure how the German tax system would know that I have investments in the US as I will not be moving any money out of those investment accounts and will only be living off my German salary. Any information about others' experiences with this is really appreciated! Thank you.

This might sound alarmist, but are there any concerns about the stability of the income tax treaties being removed or significantly altered in any way? The root of concern is born from the idea that I intend to move from the US to EU or SE Asia in the next one to two years.

Normally this would likely be a ridiculous question, perhaps it still is, but one can’t help but think anything is possible. Should such a drastic change occur, could it mean losing a majority of savings to double taxation? The point of this question is to be dramatic.

Is the new Altersvorsorge-Depot in Germany, which becomes available in Jan 2027, viewed as a retirement account or will it just be another PFIC?

So I’ve posted before about the tax position I’m in. Dual US/UK citizen with a US military retirement and a US civil service salary that ended last year (31 Dec) as I was part of the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP). Should start collecting my US civil service pension soon. So the long and the short of it is apparently since I am a US/UK citizen living in Scotland, both my retirement pay and US civil service pay are primarily taxable by the UK and I have to claim the FTC from the US. My question is if I’ve already paid the tax to the US and the FTC is non-refundable, what good is it? I’ve read that you can carry it forward for ten years but again, if the taxes are already paid, why bother? What am I missing? And OBTW, the US/UK tax treaty has a savings clause that either country can use that basically says “doesn’t matter what the treaty says, we’ll tax you the way we want”. Thanks in advance for any help/insights.

I have the opportunity to move to Germany for a three year contract as a healthcare provider on one of the army bases. The recruiter said I would have DOCPER, SOFA, FEIE status and would still be able to contribute to my 401(k) along with them matching. I was reading online that with FEIE status I would not be able to contribute to a 401(k) and neither would my employer because it’s not taxable income. I’m wondering how they are able to do this? The recruiter said she had never heard of that before. I told her I read it on the IRS website.

Also, I currently live in Alaska and would like to keep my residency here as well. So I don’t know how that works with my current banks that I do want to keep open and active. Does anyone have suggestions on addresses? I might have a friend that would let me use their address but I feel like that would be a huge ask and from what I’m reading PO Box are not allowed and can get my accounts flagged/closed. I was reading about commercial mail receiving agency like Anytime Mailbox or iPostal1. Has anyone heard of these or have any experience with these?

Is there anything else I should think about with my mailing address for residency address?

So I work for a public school in a zero income tax state and teach on Zoom. I have been approved by my principal to work abroad. There is another employee that was doing this pretty much all of last year so I'm good to go!

I am open to where I go abroad and would like to qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. I'm selling my house, my small business, and nearly all of my earthly possessions and just keeping a small storage shed here in the states.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice for me! Have any other teachers gone this route? I'm looking at southeast Asia and Costa Rica but open to just about anywhere that's safe and has some expats.

Non-US-citizen, became a US tax resident in 2023. Filing MFS in a community property state. I've held Italian investment accounts and a life insurance/investment policy for ~15–20 years.

My previous preparer filed my FBARs and 8938 for 2023–24 but only ever asked me for realized gains — PFICs never came up. I am preparing my 2025 federal return, which happens to be the first time I am having to report a realized gain. This made me look deeper into it all, which made me realize that my Italian funds are almost certainly PFICs; I sold one small fund in 2025 (~€5k lifetime gain) that now needs a §1291 Form 8621; and I likely have missed 8621s for 2023–24 plus an unaddressed §7702 question on the life insurance policy.

Not looking for solutions but I'd really like to hear from people who've actually been through this:

• My accounts were already disclosed on FBAR/8938 and income was reported (only the 8621 forms are missing). Did you go SDOP (5% penalty) or amend the back years with a reasonable-cause statement for the missing 8621s? What did your preparer advise, and how did it land with the IRS?
• How did you get a foreign life insurance policy assessed for §7702/PFIC — and did it turn out manageable or ugly?
• How did you find someone who genuinely handles inbound (foreign national in the US) PFIC + foreign-insurance work, not just outbound expats — and roughly what did it cost? Recommendations for preparers with experience ion this area would be welcome, though I am bracing for an ugly hit.

Thanks — trying to learn from others' experience before committing to a path.

Wanted to see how other high income US citizens in Canada are approaching investing. I'm also doing consults with some fee only CFP.

My situation

• In AB
• My (US citizen and Canadian PR) income this year: $400k CAD
• My spouse (Canadian citizen and non-US person) this year: $130k CAD
• All registered accounts maxed for both
• For me, only my RRSP holds PFIC, all else is US listed ETF
• I pay all expenses and my spouse invest all earnings

Question

• We still have cash accumulating and I want to continue investing. My thought is I just invest in a non-reg account in my name in non-PFIC ETF and deal with the US NITT tax. Is this the "best" path?

Comments

• CRA spousal/prescribed rate loan, where I lend my spouse $X dollars at a CRA set interest rate, feels risky in terms of how US may perceive so for now avoiding
• US allows gifting of ~$190k USD to a non-US spouse but spouse can't invest in non-registered account in Canada and it be taxed at their income without doing first bullet
• ^^^ If I give my spouse say $100k CAD and they invest in their non-reg account and I pay CAD tax on this as per attribution, will I be subject to the NITT on US taxes or do I just report as income?

Trying to get my head around filing for my SFOP...

I understand I report the total PAYE/income tax paid. I have pension contributions (matched by my employer), student loan repayments, national insurance contributions and a couple of salary sacrifice payments so what value do I need to provide? Is the value I am reporting before all of these, even though I know the US doesn't recognise things like national insurance contributions? Just a bit confused on how the numbers will look if I only report I've paid PAYE/income tax as my wages will look more than what I actually received after these other contributions?

I am thinking of including pension contributions to build up basis for when I do withdraw in the future, assuming this includes my contribution and whatever is matched?

The 'specialist' I've hired can't answer these questions well and the communication hasn't been great - so I would also be open for recommendations for a US/UK tax specialist who could help with our SFOP filings, also dealing with a house sale next year which might be complex.

I am looking into credible cpas and accountants, but any advice generally you can provide?

I basically owe a good chunk now according to the IRS which includes interest. I did file the 2023 taxes late, so that’s why they’re coming to me now via mail saying they’re not recognizing my foreign earned income exclusion.

I am wondering where I went wrong because of tax treaties and all of the taxes I paid in Japan, and with how I filed, I didn’t think I should owe anything. I made around 53K and the IRS says about 40K of that is taxable, but since I am paying taxes in Japan (at a higher rate than the US would) I didn’t expect to owe anything.

Since 2024 I became a full time employee so I understand it shouldn’t be a problem moving forward so long as I make under like 125K, but the sole proprietor year was the real issue wasn’t it? Should I have opted for FTC instead?

Anyway, they are giving me a deadline by sep 25 to appeal.

Looking for any and all advice as I simultaneously look for accountants/CPAs to help

Status:

- Born in US, left as a child. Already have other citizenships.

- Late 30s.

- No financial life or assets in the US.

- Married to a non-US citizen.

- Been based in the UK for decades, recently relocated to another country in Europe.

- Learnt about US and global taxation in early 2010s, panicked like many of you did, did SFOP with a known expat firm, been reporting ever since. Never owed anything.

- Late on 2024 filing. Was missing data, then overwhelmed with life/work. Not complex, similar to years before (salary only + FBARs). Filed written extension last year. Not worried about catching up on this one. No penalties expected.

- For 2025, I set up a UK Ltd with spouse to do contracting for a big client. Based on own research, likely a CFC due to attribution since we both own it. Made a decent amount, nothing life changing (waiting for UK accountant to finalise corp tax numbers for UK). Filed extension to Oct 15 2026. 10K penalty wouldn't apply (yet) because company was formed in 2025 so not late on it.

- For the Ltd, before setting up, I tried to get UK/US advice from experts but because there were crypto vesting schedules from the client (nothing dodgy / legit client / known name), nobody wanted to touch it. Tried big names for advice, they quoted me an insane amount of money just for the advice, more than I could pay. Found a UK one who seemed to know what they were talking about at a reasonable price, using them for UK end of things. I should have done better research but still I think would be in the same situation because of attribution (no way to set up the Ltd where wife's shares aren't attributed to me).

- Lost big client early this year, so no income now. Living off savings. Relocated to a cheaper country, near wife's family in order to preserve savings because wife was pregnant with 3rd kid when client cancelled (yeah... that wasn't fun), so had to focus on being ready for the birth instead of work. Want to stay here near wife's family. Not sure where income will come from yet, helping take care of newborn and handling necessary local admin first, so not focused on work yet. Will start looking from next month, but worried because AI is eating up what I specialised in.

Questions:

1. Likely tax owed: What might I owe the IRS if the company is an CFC? From what I can tell, it could be nothing because UK corp rates are higher than US. Is this right? Anyone with experience that can share what they paid? EDIT: to be specific, a large chunk of the expenses were pension contributions into our UK pensions.
2. Trustworthy preparers: Any advice on which expat preparers you would trust / not trust with this (5471, GILTI, etc)? I'm shopping around, I've contacted several expat specialist firms (many listed in posts in this sub) and the difference in answers I got didn't reassure me that they all know what they're doing.
3. Split accounting-period reporting on 5471: Like every UK Ltd, my accounting period spans two calendar years. Most revenue was in the first calendar year and most expenses in the second. Does US reporting on Form 5471 follow the company's own accounting period, or is it split by US calendar year (which would wrongly show big profit in year one and a loss in year two rather than the expenses offsetting revenue across the single period)?
4. Worse case scenarios: If I never plan on living in the US... if I don't have any assets there... if I'm not getting Social Security... if I don't live in one of the 6 countries on the MCAR list - to repeat what many others have asked me when they see me looking worried: what would/could happen if I stopped filing? I'm asking purely out of curiosity, not intent. I know many older citizens living abroad who get SS, who never filed anything, who definitely pass the income thresholds, who definitely pass the FBAR thresholds... and never had any trouble. No letters, nothing. And they're getting SS payments, for decades! They've bought and sold houses. It baffles me that they're care free, while I'm terrified. I don't have a good answer for those who ask me what would happen if I just stopped. I want to be compliant, I'm losing way too much sleep over this, but I'm also worried I'm going to lose the savings that right now are feeding my family.

Thank you all.

I have lived in the UK for ten years, haven't filed for the last three like a dummy. I worry I had done it wrong previously, as I did it on my own with software.

I have a complimentary meeting with an advisor prior to signing up for an ExPat tax service because at this point I just have no idea what I am doing, and I need to become tax compliant so I can sort out a student loan repayment plan.

I make <$100,000 in the UK, I have no investments here or in the US apart from pensions. I have no other sources of income, passive or earned. I have no pensions in the US. I have a bank account in the US to pay my student loans but there's never more than a few thousand in it.

What documents should I have ready to make this first appointment the most useful? I have access to my P60s for the last few years. Do I need to have copies of my savings/checking statements? Or should I just know certain facts (like a total interest over the year? Or just the largest amount in there each year?). Do I need to have any information about my American accounts if there's no income going into it? Any other information I should have ready?

I know this is just a first chat and they aren't likely to give me any advice, but I don't want to waste anyone's time and so I thought I would be as prepared as possible. I am sorry if this is so basic, but I genuinely am starting from zero and I just wanted to ask. Thank you!

I’m a US citizen living in Australia and have about AUD40,000 in super. It’s not an SMSF, it’s a normal regulated super account but I made all the contributions myself. I am not making any more.

I’ve been told this makes it a foreign grantor trust (which I can see) and that I may have to file Forms 3520 and 3520-A every year. I can’t access the money for around another 12 years, and the annual accounting fees could end up eating most of the super.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did your accountant say the forms were required, or that your super qualified for the Rev. Proc. 2020-17 exemption?

Also, has anyone looked at the proposed 2024 foreign-trust regulations, REG-124850-08? They seem to include a broader exemption for certain foreign retirement trusts, but I can’t get a clear answer on whether they can be relied on before they’re final. I have gotten 3 CPA opinions and they all vary and no one can give me a definite answer.

Is there any way out? It seems painful that starting a super could lead to 15 years of expenses.

Does anyone have comments or experience with this?

I have read countless threads and articles online and the information is so overwhelming, so apologies if this has been answered elsewhere in the subreddit.

I am in the process of completing my SFOP with a UK-based company and haven't had particular clear responses on my many questions. I feel I have a tricky situation as I received some inheritance from my late Mum from her employer's death in service benefit, also hold a cash ISA, savings account and premium bonds; my employer is the NHS so the pension I pay into isn't the same as a SIPP. My brother also receives PIP and I am supporting completing his SFOP as he is unable to do so himself.

I know I already pay tax on my income so that cancels out, but how does it work with regards to savings interest/premium bond winnings/inheritance/PIP payments? I also will still be paying back loans for my uni tuition fees and maintenance loan from my income - I don't know how UK student loans get reported?

The idea of having to pay any money on inheritance I got from my mother who is a UK citizen is too infuriating to think about. I also hope to buy a house with my partner (UK citizen) next year once the sale of her house is sorted - I don't fully understand what happens with getting a mortgage as a UK/US citizen. We also plan to open a LISA each to help with funds but I feel it might not be worth the hassle for me?

I've ruminated on the idea of revoking our citizenship but we have family still in the US and the process of doing it really doesn't seem worth the stress. The stress of trying to plan for my future is just as bad though.

Thank you in advance!

Just wondering if anyone has used expatglobaltax.com before

i tried searching but nothing was coming up

My wife and I found them and have an appointment booked for Saturday, but I was looking at their reviews on trustpilot and they have not a single 1-3 star review which i found a bit odd

Thank you for your help!