Did you know that there are over 7.6 million American people living or working overseas? Half of these people are only filing their US tax returns, despite still being citizens. It is clear that many expats do not realize that they still have an obligation to the US Federal Tax. This means that they are in fact targets for the IRS. Luckily, there are ways to get rid of this worry and move on.
The Streamlined Filing Procedures
This is probably the best way to deal with filing taxes if a person was not aware of them. This is a great program that was designed to be able to fix tax problems without seeming like you were hiding amounts of money, or knowingly evading taxes. Most people fall into this category if they live overseas. This means that they have to only provide the last 3 years of Federal Tax Returns and 6 years of Foreign Ban Account Reports. The trick with this is that you only need to file the FBARs if you hit at least 10,000 or more during a tax year, even if only for a small bit of time.
This procedure is wonderful because the IRS has recently deigned to waive all late fee penalties and filing deadlines. This does still mean that they have to be filed, however, so that you do not end up owing. Most people end up not having to owe any money anyway.
Being able to get your taxes fixed up no matter where you are living in the world is important, but even more so if you do not currently live in the United States and are still a citizen. Filing taxes is important!
Get Caught Up On Your Expat Taxes by Steve Jones