Tax
US taxes when you live abroad
US citizens and green card holders still file with the IRS wherever they live. Who has to file, the two ways to avoid paying tax twice, the forms for foreign bank accounts, the deadlines, catching up if you never filed, your state, and eight expat tax services compared from their own price lists.
Checked on 16 October 2026. Figures are for tax year 2025 (the return filed in 2026), with 2026 amounts where the IRS has published them. This is general information, not tax advice: your situation can change the answer.
The short version
- You still file. The IRS taxes citizens and green card holders on worldwide income wherever they live. Earnings you exclude still count towards the amount that means you have to file.
- There are two ways to avoid paying tax twice. Exclude up to $130,000 of foreign earnings for 2025 ($132,900 for 2026), or take a credit for the income tax you've paid abroad. You have to file a return to use the exclusion.
- Report foreign accounts. If your foreign accounts together went over $10,000 at any point in the year, you file an FBAR, separately from your tax return. Larger amounts need Form 8938 too.
- Self-employed? The exclusion doesn't reduce self-employment tax. A social security agreement with the country you live in might.
- Your state may not let go. Some states keep treating you as a resident after you move abroad.
- Behind? If you lived abroad and didn't file by mistake, the IRS's Streamlined procedures let you catch up with 3 years of returns and 6 years of FBARs, without the usual penalties.
Who has to file
You have to file a 2025 return if your gross income from anywhere in the world was at least the amount for your filing status. Foreign earnings and housing amounts you exclude still count towards it. IRS, filing requirements abroad, IRS Publication 501, 2025, table 1
Self-employed? You have to file if your net self-employment earnings were $400 or more, even below these amounts. Married filing separately is $5 at any age, so in practice almost anyone filing separately has to file.
The exclusion or the credit
The foreign earned income exclusion (Form 2555)
- How much
- Up to $130,000 of foreign earnings for 2025, and $132,900 for 2026. A married couple who both qualify work it out separately, so up to $260,000 for 2025. IRS, Form 2555 instructions, 2025, IRS, figuring the exclusion, March 2026
- Who qualifies
- Your tax home must be in a foreign country, and you must pass one of two tests: be a bona fide resident of a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes a whole tax year (open to green card holders only if they're citizens of a country with a US tax treaty), or be physically present in foreign countries for 330 full days in any 12 months in a row. IRS, foreign earned income exclusion, IRS, physical presence test
- A full day
- Midnight to midnight. Days don't have to be in a row, but time in transit over international waters doesn't count. IRS, physical presence test
- Housing
- You can also exclude, or deduct if you're self-employed, housing costs above a base amount: $20,800 for 2025. The most housing costs you can count is usually $39,000 for 2025 and $39,870 for 2026, higher in expensive cities: for 2026, London $68,600, Singapore $86,700, Hong Kong $114,300 and Geneva $116,900. You can use the 2026 city limits on your 2025 return. IRS Notice 2025-16 (housing, 2025), IRS Notice 2026-25 (housing, 2026), IRS Publication 54, December 2025
The foreign tax credit (Form 1116)
- How it works
- A credit against your US tax for qualified income tax you've paid abroad. You can take it as an itemised deduction instead. IRS Publication 514, 2025
- Not on the same income
- You can't take a credit for foreign tax on income you excluded, or could have excluded. IRS, choosing the exclusion
- Small amounts
- If your foreign tax was $300 or less ($600 on a joint return), all on passive income such as interest and dividends reported on a statement, you can claim it without Form 1116, but you can't carry any over. IRS, figuring the foreign tax credit
Things that can tip it
- It isn't always one or the other: you can exclude some income and take the credit on other income, such as earnings above the cap or investment income. The credit just can't be for tax on income you excluded. IRS, choosing the exclusion, IRS Publication 514, 2025
- The exclusion is capped at a dollar amount; the credit depends on how much income tax you actually paid abroad. IRS, figuring the exclusion, March 2026, IRS Publication 514, 2025
- Using the exclusion means you can't claim the refundable part of the child tax credit, worth up to $1,700 a child for 2025. IRS, Schedule 8812 instructions, 2025
- Unused credits carry over to later years; the exclusion doesn't. IRS Publication 514, 2025
- Revoking the exclusion locks you out of it for 5 years unless the IRS agrees. IRS, Form 2555 instructions, 2025
Freelancing abroad: self-employment tax
- The exclusion doesn't help
- Self-employment tax is worked out on all your net self-employment income, including the part you exclude from income tax. IRS Publication 54, December 2025
- Social security agreements
- The US has agreements with 31 countries so you don't pay into two social security systems: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania (from 1 September 2026), Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and Uruguay. SSA, agreements in force, September 2026, SSA, international social security agreements
Foreign bank accounts: the FBAR and Form 8938
Sources: IRS, FBAR, July 2026, IRS, comparing Form 8938 and the FBAR, September 2026, Federal Register, FinCEN penalty amounts, January 2025, Supreme Court, Bittner v. United States, 2023, IRS, Form 8938 instructions
Foreign investment funds can bring their own form. The IRS treats a foreign company as a PFIC, with Form 8621 and its own tax rules, if 75% or more of its income is passive or at least half its assets produce passive income. You may not need to file Form 8621 in a year when your holdings total $25,000 or less ($50,000 jointly) and there's no excess distribution or gain, but the tax rules still apply. Check with a preparer before you buy funds abroad. IRS, Form 8621 instructions, December 2025
Deadlines
Your 2025 return
Missed your deadline? File as soon as you can: interest on unpaid tax runs from 15 April whatever extension you had. If you've missed several years, see catching up below. The June, October and December dates are worked out from the IRS's standing rules. IRS, when to file and pay abroad, September 2026, IRS Publication 54, December 2025, IRS, the 2026 filing season, January 2026
Waiting to pass the 330-day or residence test before you can use the exclusion? Form 2350, filed by the due date, extends the time to file to about 30 days after you expect to qualify. It doesn't give you more time to pay. IRS, extension to claim the exclusion, IRS Publication 54, December 2025
Your 2026 return
The 2026 return dates follow the IRS's usual rules; it confirms each year's dates in the new year. A date that falls on a weekend moves to the next working day, as 15 June 2025 did. IRS, when to file and pay abroad, September 2026, IRS, the 2026 filing season, January 2026, IRS Tax Tip 2025-32, June 2025
If you never filed: catching up
Plenty of Americans abroad only find out years later. The IRS has a route for people who didn't file because of a mistake or a misunderstanding.
- Streamlined procedures for people abroad
- You file returns for the last 3 years whose due date has passed, with any information returns, and FBARs for the last 6 years, plus Form 14653, certifying it wasn't wilful. You also pay the tax and interest you owe. If you qualify, there are no failure-to-file, failure-to-pay or accuracy penalties, and none of the other penalties the IRS lists. Penalties it has already charged aren't refunded. IRS, Streamlined procedures for people abroad, July 2026
- Who qualifies
- In at least one of the last 3 years, you had no US home and were outside the US for at least 330 full days. And not filing was down to "negligence, inadvertence, or mistake", or a good-faith misunderstanding of the law. IRS, Streamlined procedures for people abroad, July 2026
Your state
Each state has its own rules, and moving abroad doesn't always end your residence there. What four states' tax departments say:
- California
- You can stay a resident while abroad if you're only away for a temporary purpose, and ties such as a home, bank accounts, a driving licence or voter registration count. If you're abroad on an employment contract for at least 546 days in a row, you're generally treated as a nonresident, with up to 45 days a year back allowed, unless you had more than $200,000 of income from intangibles, such as investments, in a year, or the main purpose was avoiding tax. California FTB Publication 1031
- New York
- Your New York domicile doesn't change until you can show you've given it up. You're treated as a nonresident if you're in a foreign country for at least 450 days in any 548 days in a row and you, your spouse and minor children spend no more than 90 days in New York in that time (with a lower limit in a part year). New York Tax Department, definitions, May 2025
- Virginia
- Unless you take up a legal domicile in another state, you're still a Virginia resident and taxed on all your income, though the federal exclusion carries over. No credit for foreign income tax, except on foreign pensions. Abroad on 1 May? Your return is due on 1 July. Virginia Tax, residency status
- South Carolina
- Its guide says someone who moves abroad for work is still domiciled in South Carolina unless they become a permanent resident of the other country. South Carolina DOR, domicile guide, 2021
- States without income tax
- For 2026, Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming have no tax on wages, and Washington taxes only capital gains, according to the Tax Foundation. Washington has since passed a tax on very high incomes, starting in 2028. Tax Foundation, 2026 state income tax rates, RSM, Washington enacts a millionaires tax, 2026
Families, spouses and passports
- Child tax credit
- Up to $2,200 a child for 2025, of which up to $1,700 can be paid to you as a refund. The child needs a valid Social Security number, and from 2025 so do you (on a joint return, one of you). If you file Form 2555 for the exclusion, you can't claim the refundable part. IRS, Schedule 8812 instructions, 2025
- A spouse who isn't American
- You can choose to treat a nonresident spouse as a US resident and file jointly. Then both of you report your worldwide income for that year and every year after, until the choice ends. IRS, nonresident spouse, March 2026
- Giving up citizenship or a green card
- The State Department's fee to renounce citizenship fell from $2,350 to $450 from 13 April 2026. Citizens who renounce, and long-term green card holders who give up residence, file Form 8854. You're a "covered expatriate", which can mean an exit tax, if your net worth is $2 million or more, your average yearly income tax over the last 5 years was more than $206,000 (for 2025; $211,000 for 2026), or you can't certify 5 years of compliance. There are exceptions for some people who were dual citizens from birth and some who renounce before 18½. Federal Register, renunciation fee, March 2026, IRS, Form 8854 instructions, 2025, IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 amounts)
Expat tax services compared
Prices from each service's own price list, for a federal return using the exclusion or the credit, in dollars as shown (most say US dollars; a few just show "$"). Most quote "from": a more complicated return costs more.
- What you get
- Online software. Base Lite ($115) is for salary only. Base ($175) adds freelance and investment income, and includes the FBAR and Form 8938. Reviewed ($320) adds a tax professional's review and approval; on Premium ($639) a tax professional enters your data.
- Extra
- A state return $139 on Base, $69 on Reviewed. Form 8621 (foreign funds) $149 each on Base. Streamlined catch-up $875, for up to 4 years of returns, 6 FBARs and the current year.
- Paying
- Free to start; you pay when you're ready to file. Prices are set in euros and shown in 17 currencies; the dollar price follows the euro price each week, with a 3% exchange fee.
- Reviews
- Trustpilot 4.7 from 5,533 reviews, read on 16 October 2026.
- Company
- MyExpat GmbH, Vienna.
Sources: MyExpatTaxes, pricing, MyExpatTaxes, what the fee covers, Trustpilot, MyExpatTaxes
Go to MyExpatTaxes
- What you get
- Software for Americans abroad. Standard ($119) covers the 1040 and Form 1116, the foreign tax credit. Premier ($159) adds self-employment and the refundable child tax credit; Investor ($199) adds capital gains, rental income and FATCA. On Unlimited ($499) an expat tax expert prepares it.
- Check first
- Its price list and cost FAQ don't name Form 2555, the foreign earned income exclusion. Ask before you buy if you want to use the exclusion.
- Extra
- Streamlined catch-up from $699 (Standard), $819 (Premier) or $939 (Investor), with the certification and up to 6 FBARs. The FBAR itself: "Simple FBAR instructions per e-mail" on Standard.
- Paying
- Free to start; you pay when you're ready to e-file.
- Company
- Expatfile.tax LLC.
Sources: Expatfile, pricing, Expatfile, what it costs, Expatfile, what it is
Go to Expatfile
- Doing it yourself
- From $124 for employees and $174 with freelance or investment income, with Forms 2555 and 1116 included. An expert review costs $99 more. A state return $99; the FBAR or Form 8938 $49 each; Form 8621 $99 each. Past-due returns from $699. Prices are "starting at".
- With an advisor
- From $259 for employees and $459 with freelance or investment income. A state return $125; the FBAR $99 for the first year and $75 for each year after; Form 8938 $100 to $200. Past-due returns from $1,119, up to three years.
- Who prepares it
- H&R Block calls them experienced expat tax advisors, and its own footnote says your advisor "may not be a licensed accountant".
- Guarantee
- A "100% Accuracy Guarantee"; the full terms are on its guarantees page.
Sources: H&R Block, do it yourself, H&R Block, with an advisor
Go to H&R Block Expat
- What you get
- A federal return prepared and e-filed by "an IRS-licensed tax professional" for $334, covering "over 37 IRS forms", it says, though the same page also mentions "hundreds of extra IRS forms without additional fees". Its full fee page wouldn't open for us.
- Extra
- Streamlined catch-up $1,195, with 3 returns, 6 FBARs and the certification. Help to renounce US citizenship $2,795.
- How it works
- A questionnaire and uploads, then you approve a draft before it's filed, with a named client manager.
- Company
- Expat Tax Online LLC.
Sources: Expat Tax Online
Go to Expat Tax Online
- What you get
- A federal return with Forms 2555 and 1116, wages, child credits and some investment income, for $450. "Every return is reviewed by at least two CPA/EA", it says. Prices exclude VAT; a fee can be added for complex or high-income cases.
- Extra
- FBAR $85; a state return $160; Form 8938 $100; Form 8621 $200 for the first, $150 each after. Self-employment and some other income in a $75 bundle. Streamlined catch-up $1,450, or $1,650 with income over $100,000. 20% off when you file three years or more.
- How it works
- A free 30-minute introductory call (its process page mentions a $50 retainer), a questionnaire, then an engagement letter with the itemised cost. Standard turnaround 15 business days after you sign.
- Reviews
- Trustpilot 4.8 from 2,777 reviews, read on 16 October 2026.
- Company
- Taxes for Expats LP, New York.
Sources: Taxes for Expats, pricing, Taxes for Expats, how it works, Trustpilot, Taxes for Expats
Go to Taxes for Expats
- What you get
- A flat $500 return prepared by "a qualified CPA or Enrolled Agent", including Forms 2555 and 1116, self-employment income and FATCA reporting. You pay after the work is done.
- Extra
- Streamlined catch-up $1,800, with 3 returns, 6 FBARs and the certification. A 20-minute introductory call $50, taken off the fee.
- How it works
- A quote within one business day, then uploads to a portal; its FAQ says about two weeks.
- Reviews
- Trustpilot 4.9 from 232 reviews, read on 16 October 2026.
- Company
- Offices listed in London and New York.
Sources: 1040 Abroad, Trustpilot, 1040 Abroad
Go to 1040 Abroad
- What you get
- A federal return with Forms 2555 and 1116, schedules A to E and up to 20 transactions, for $565. "Every return is prepared by a CPA or IRS Enrolled Agent", with one accountant assigned to you. You see a draft before you pay.
- Extra
- FBAR from $125 for up to 5 accounts; a state return $185; Form 8938 from $120. Streamlined catch-up $1,750.
- Guarantee
- A "100% money-back guarantee" if you're unsatisfied with the preparation.
- Company
- Grandville, Michigan; preparing expat returns since 2009, it says.
Sources: Greenback, services and prices, Greenback, price calculator, Greenback, its guarantee
Go to Greenback Expat Tax Services
- What you get
- A federal return for $800 a year, with Form 2555 or 1116 ("whichever gives the better outcome"), the FBAR and the April and June extensions. Fees current as of August 2026, it says.
- Extra
- A state return $180; self-employment $140 per business; Form 8938 $170; Form 8621 $170 or $280 per fund; an ITIN for a foreign spouse or child $330. Streamlined catch-up $1,860.
- Refunds
- Its terms keep part of the fee if you cancel: $50 after a quote, 10% after you upload documents, 50% once work starts, and nothing back after the draft. Half the fee is due when you accept the quote. For its own calculation errors, it pays penalties and interest up to the fee you paid, if you tell it within 30 days. Its terms are dated November 2022.
- Reviews
- Trustpilot 4.7 from 735 reviews, read on 16 October 2026.
Sources: Bright!Tax, all fees, Bright!Tax, terms, Trustpilot, Bright!Tax
Go to Bright!Tax
Checking a preparer
- Anyone paid to prepare your federal return must have a PTIN, and must sign the return with it.
- CPAs, enrolled agents and tax lawyers can represent you in front of the IRS on anything. Other preparers have limited rights, or none.
- Look them up in the IRS directory of federal tax return preparers; CPAs with their state board, lawyers with their state bar.
- The IRS's red flags: a preparer who won't sign, or charges a percentage of your refund.
Sources: IRS, choosing a tax professional (IR-2024-31), IRS, directory of federal tax return preparers
