Expat Tax & Finance

  The year I first heard “Dubai has zero income tax,” I spent twenty minutes on Google Flights before my accountant called me back. She wasn’t impressed. “You still file a US return,” she said. “You still owe the IRS. And no, there’s no treaty to help you.” That’s the conversation nobody has before they book…

  Most Americans who move abroad do the math and feel good about it. Federal taxes? Zeroed out (or close to it) via the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which covers $126,500 in 2024 and $132,900 in 2026. FBAR filed. Done. Then the California Franchise Tax Board sends a letter. It’s not unusual for expats — living…

  The IRS collected an estimated $2.1 billion in duplicate Social Security contributions from Americans abroad in recent years — and most of those people had no idea they were entitled to an exemption. If you’re self-employed and living in one of 30 specific countries, you may be overpaying the US government by $7,000 to $20,000…

  The US has income tax treaties with more than 70 countries. Most of those treaties include a single paragraph — usually buried in Article 1 — that quietly makes the entire agreement nearly worthless for American citizens living abroad. It’s called the saving clause, and if you’ve been counting on a tax treaty to protect…

  Most US expats know about the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Fewer know it can cost them $14,000 a year they never see coming — while a different form sitting in the same tax code would have wiped out that bill entirely. The FEIE versus Foreign Tax Credit decision isn’t about which option sounds better. It’s…

  You researched FEIE. You filed Form 2555. You excluded every dollar of foreign earned income up to the $132,900 limit and owed exactly $0 in federal income tax. Then your accountant sent the final return — and there was a $20,335 bill sitting at the bottom. That’s self-employment tax. And it’s the line item that…

  Here’s the most expensive mistake US expats make with their retirement accounts: They use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion — the single most popular expat tax strategy, saving thousands of dollars per year — and in doing so, they unknowingly make themselves ineligible to contribute a single dollar to a Roth IRA for that same…

  A CP2000 notice from the IRS has a 30-day response deadline. If you don’t respond, the IRS automatically assesses the tax, plus penalties and interest — no hearing, no appeal, no mercy. In 2024, the IRS sent 4.8 million of these notices to taxpayers. Now imagine that notice was mailed to your old apartment in…

  Here’s a number that should make you furious: the average American pays an effective federal income tax rate of around 13–14% — but if you’re earning $120,000 a year and living in the right country, you could pay zero to your country of residence. Not 3%. Not a flat 10%. Literally zero. And in many…

  Here’s a number that should make your stomach drop: the average American living abroad unknowingly hands their bank $1,440 or more every single year in fees they could completely eliminate. That’s not a typo. That’s 3% foreign transaction markup on $30,000 in annual spending, plus $45 international wire fees at a conservative one per month…