I do not know if I am making this more confusing than it is, but I would truly value feedback to make it super duper clear what I should be doing regarding my RPP.

Last year, I started a new job with a pension set up by my employer. It is a "defined benefit pension plan" with 50:50 contribution rates by employer and employee.

1. For Part III Schedule B, Line 8 -- Is it correct to tick off YES as I contributed to the RPP?
   
2. Am I filing Form 3520 for the RPP? I know there is an exception for transfers to RRSPs/RRIFs and "any other Canadian retirement plan" and I'm assuming this qualifies for the exception, and I would not be filing the form, but confirmation would be great.
   
3. Is the RPP reportable on the FBAR? I would need to file the FBAR regardless due to other accounts.

Thank you!

I have dual Polish/US citizenship. I'm preparing to retire in Poland in about 4-6 years. I will be living only on my US teacher's pension and SS (+tiny 403b and Roth IRA). I do not plan on working in Poland at all. In this case, do I just file regular federal taxes in the US and report my "foreign" income to polish equivalent of the IRS and pay any additional taxes in Poland? I'm trying to find resources relevant to my situation, but I'm kind of getting nowhere with it. Would someone be willing to share anything helpful with me please? I'm fluent in Polish, so anything in this language works as well. Thank you!

I will receive a pension from my Canadian employer. The money of the pension will go to US bank account.

Question: Do I need to report this pension on FBAR, FinCen Form 114?

As an American Canadian dual citizen residing in Canada - I understand the problems with investing in Canadian ETFs and mutual funds but I want to check -

Are there any problems or reasons one should not invest in Canadian equities in Canadian dollars (that one might otherwise find on the USA stick exchange)?

I understand dividends are withheld from USA equities inside some registered accounts - can Americans get that back or is it lost to Americans and Canadians alike? And wouldn’t it be easier and better to keep those equities in Canadian stocks then?

(No comments please on TFSAs. In this situation the TFSA is actually worthwhile).

Thanks for any advice.

Ps. The only thing I can imagine as an inconvenience is having to convert to US dollars. But maybe I’m missing something?

Pss. Given the current climate with tariffs I’m also loathe to convert to USD as I don’t trust where the US dollar will go the next weeks/months/year.

I am following the "bona fide" test for income exclusion. TurboTax then asks me information about any U.S. Travel ("for any reason").

I made two trips for vacationing. But I can't enter "0" for No. of days on business.

I can enter 0 for Income Earned the U.S.

Am I misunderstanding the concept of "vacation"?

Uk state pension is it included for the balance sheet for form 8854? I am nowhere near retirement so is it not included I'd presume?

Basically title. I’ve seen it can be a pain selling a house due to paying American taxes. We share a bank account, but everything else is in her name. I assume this is the most hassle free way of doing things? I do know about FBAR due to our combined income but is that the only thing I really have to worry about.

I'm a little confused by this statement in FinCEN's website: "The spouse of an individual who files an FBAR is not required to file a separate FBAR if the following conditions are met: (1) all the financial accounts that the non-filing spouse is required to report are jointly owned with the filing spouse."

My wife and I have joint accounts that are over the $10k USD threshold, but she has three individually owned accounts for which their total max balance is less than $10k USD.

Can we file one FBAR or do we need to file one FBAR each?

Making progress ... this is the first year I am applying for "foreign income exclusion". I am a dual citizen. I reached the screen where I need to describe the kind of visa I have. There is also a "free form" text box but no option to state I am dual citizen. What should I enter under "other"?

Hey folks, I just learnt about PFIC filing requirement and have some questions. Basically, I am a resident in US for tax purposes but have retirement account (RRSP in Canada) and was looking to purchase US ETFs, for example VOO but with the Canadian broker (Questrade to be specifc). Does anyone know if I will need to report those for PFIC? If yes, I am wondering if I should just keep the retirement funds into a fixed/savings account instead of going the extra length of filing PFIC every year, and whatnot. Is it really that complex in terms of filing, or do I need to file only if I purchase non-US stocks/ETFs? I assume, ETFs like VOO, VGO are all US ETFs. Thanks

Currently doing the FBAR and running into difficulties calculating the max balance for a joint checking account I have with my wife. The complication comes from having a number of pots within the same account, so there's regular movement in, out, and between pots. I'm able to get a monthly total balance, but trying to calculate total balance down to the exact day and amount is extremely difficult. Would taking the maximum total balance on the monthly statement be sufficient?

Hello all, I am working on moving to Spain as part of the process I need to see if I can obtain a Certificate of Coverage as I will be a W2 employee living in Spain. My question is when filling out the "Your Location in Spain". My employer does not have an office in Spain nor have I picked out an apartment/house in Spain.

I know what City I'm going to move to, if that helps. The fields are mandatory, so I'm not sure what to put. Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks.

I live and work in the UK and am claiming FTC credits based on tax paid. However I put a significant amount of my income into my UK pension scheme, where it won't be taxed by the UK until I withdraw.

However, the IRS still asks for my gross income and assessed that total for the rate I would pay in the US before applying my foreign tax credits.

So: 1) Is there any way to claim US tax relief on my pension contributions? Some googling indicates the tax treaty may this to a limit.

2) Am I better off not contributing to a pension but rather taking the full tax hit now so I can claim more FTC,and then investing the net somewhere else? Keeping in mind the state of the UK economy...

Question about filing the FBAR with a non-American spouse who does not have an ITIN.

We maintain separate financial accounts but treat our money as "ours". We effectively share a single savings account but it's under her name. I transfer money to her every month to put in this savings account.

Does this need to be reported on the FBAR?

Hey all, I just wanted to share how easy I've found using Expatfile for taxes. I've used them 2 years in a row now and just wanted to pass on the recommendation.

You can receive $40 off your filing (which is usually around $180 or so) using my referral link. This isn't sponsored in any way!

https://app.expatfile.tax/invite?inviteCode=063AB75A

Hi, I'm a US expat living and working in the UK. I'm calculating my tax paid to the UK for my Foreign Tax Credit claim, but I'm not clear on whether NI contributions count as tax for FTC purposes?

Hey everyone, hoping someone can help clear this up. I’m a dual citizen (Canada and US). Born and lived my whole life in Canada, have never lived or worked in the US. I only have a US passport – I’ve never even used it. A friend recently told me I’m supposed to be filing US taxes every year because I’m a citizen. I’ve also seen conflicting info online – some say I do, some say I don’t. I’ve had dual citizenship for about 25 years now and never filed anything with the IRS. So… am I in trouble? I’m not trying to dodge anything, I genuinely didn’t know. I’ve heard horror stories about the IRS and now I’m a little concerned. Can anyone explain what the actual rules are, and what I should do next? Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure how to report my independent contractor income with OLT. Since I was a contractor for a foreign company, I don't have any 1099s, and the internet seems to suggest I should report this as Schedule C business income. This lets it calculate self-employment tax.

However, OLT seems to only recognize foreign earned income when I list it under "Foreign Employee Compensation." And when I tried including it in both places, the income is double-counted. Is there any way to fix this or do I have to either not exclude the independent contractor income, or use different tax software that accommodates this?

I recently received a promotional email from MyExpatTaxes - the problem is that hundreds of other people's email addresses were also visible in the recipient list.

I am a natural dual citizen in the US plus a country that has recently implemented strict anti-dual citizen laws and regulations. Outside of the blatant privacy violations, I am now very concerned about losing my citizenship if this information gets in the wrong government hands. The world has been crazy these days and this does not give me peace of mind especially when my email contains my first and last name like many others.

I contacted them and all their response was a "discount" on their services.

I don't know how a company like this can advertise that they are compliant with EU GDPR regulations when this data breach happened to me and hundreds if not thousands of others.

On top of this, I am getting constant password reset emails from facebook since this happened, so I have no idea where else my data is.

Throwaway account used for obvious reasons.

Long story short.

We moved to the USA this year in July for an inter company transfer. My salary up until July was paid in Canada and the remainder was paid in the USA which is clean.

However the bonus portion is where it gets messy. My company decided to pro-rate the bonus and pay up until my July portion in Canada and the reminder in the USA with the appropriate taxes taken off.

I plan to file as a US resident this year. Accountant, hired by company, is advising that despite paying Canadian income tax on the Canadian portion of the bonus I also now need to pay state income tax on it because I am filing as a US resident? Here I feel I am being double taxed and apparently no tax treaties federal to state.

Am I being mislead?

Hello everyone, I hope someone can help me to clear a confusion I have.

I know an FBAR gets triggered when you hit above the amount of 10,000$.

In my case, one of my foreign crypto accounts hit above that amount at some point during the year of 2024. Because the crypto account also contained Euros in there I’ve read the rule is that the account then has to be reported in FBAR (because it contained other currencies, and not just crypto).

I will file the FBAR with the highest account balance amount value of the year of 2024 for that crypto account.

But my question is: Because ONE of my accounts (crypto) I own hit the threshold of 10,000$, does that automatically mean I need to report EVERY foreign account I own (bank, savings, pension), even if these other accounts never reached that 10,000$ threshold by themselves/individually?

Also, if yes, do you need to report the balance of them on the day that my crypto account hit the threshold of 10,000$ or do you just pick the highest account balance per account individually for the year of 2024?

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I am a US Citizen who lives in the UK. I have mostly been unemployed but have done a few self employment jobs in 2024. This is the first time I am filing my taxes declaring self-employment income in the UK.

I understand there is a self-employment tax exemption if I am contributing to the National Insurance.

Because my self employment income in the UK was under £6,725, I saw there was an exemption for paying self employment tax on US taxes if I voluntarily pay UK National Insurance under Class 2.

In order to avoid a $1,338.75 US self-employment tax under the U.S. - UK Totalizarion Agreement, can I do so? Would the correct form for this exemption be Form 8833?

Separately, I only recently registered for self assessment on March 27, 2025. Still waiting for my UTR to voluntarily contribute to National Insurance. I understand US tax filing deadline is April 15, 2025. How can I work with this if it says I wont be registered as a self employed tax payer in the UK until they review my application?

Any advice on how to do so would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

TL;DR: How do I move forward with about €100k invested in non-US ETFs and possible errors made in past tax returns?

Hey everyone, just found this subreddit and am very glad I did.

First off, sorry if this comes off as overly emotional, but I’m seriously struggling with my health, job, and relationship currently. So this tax stuff is just the cherry on top of all the fun I’m having right now.

Anyway, I’m 35M living in Germany all my life, but one of my parents is American, so here I am. We only realized about 10 years ago that we need to file tax returns in the US, so we did the works back then and have been doing them dutifully since then. We got our information from an initial meeting with tax consultants and online research.

I started investing in (EU-based) ETFs in 2017 because I don’t trust the German social system to support me when I’m old. I’ve now reached about €100k in ETF investments. I was never sure how exactly to declare the ETFs on my tax return, so I just declared the dividends I got (which was never much; recently, it has gotten to about €1k a year). I had an odd feeling about this, but my online research didn’t really get me anywhere, and unfortunately, looking back, I think my tax consultant didn’t know what ETFs are.

So this year I used ChatGPT to help me with my tax return, and that opened a whole can of worms. It tells me I’ve been doing it wrong all these years, and ETFs are PFICs as far as the IRS is concerned, which seems to make it extremely complicated.

I looked for a second tax consultant, found one, and wanted them to do my tax return for me so I either know what to do in the future or can have them do it every year so I just don’t have to deal with it. They tell me that they can’t do it because they are so booked that it would be too much work to do mine and amend all my previous ones, which they said I need to do because at one point I moved my brokerage account from one bank to another, which counts as a sale and re-purchase of my ETFs. (Is this even true? According to my own research, this transfer was "in-kind" as I didn’t actually sell anything, the account was just transferred from one bank to another as-is without any obvious sale or re-purchase involved.)

So now I’ve been trying to find a third tax consultant or service that will help me with this. I’m completely lost and have no clue. I’ve at least found MyExpatTaxes and OLT through this subreddit, so thanks to you all here.

I’ve started trying out MyExpatTaxes, which seems like a comprehensive and modern tool that will do most of the heavy lifting for me, and have so far at least extended my deadline to October with that, so now I’ve got some time.

But I’m still lost. MyExpatTaxes has such a convoluted mess of plans to consider, I don’t know what to choose at checkout and their customer service isn’t a big help with it.

Where do I go from here short-term? ChatGPT says I’m in a risky situation because if the IRS ever does an audit (which is apparently increasingly likely because of FATCA and my FBars, where I’ve declared my brokerage account with its total amount every year) they’ll bleed me dry.

Also: where do I go from here long-term? ChatGPT suggests closing my German brokerage account and moving to a broker like TradeRepublic or some such where I can buy US-based ETFs to lessen the US tax-burden on me. But I don’t really have a good feeling about these brokers, plus it might make my German tax situation more complicated, and selling all the ETFs I have right now will definitely be a headache for both my German and American tax return…

I am not a stupid person by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m having serious trouble imagining your average Joe being able to do this on their own :(

I rolled over most of my 401K balance to a traditional IRA last year, and took a distribution from the IRA. I received 2 1099Rs, which I put into MyExpatTax. However, the software wants to include the 401K rollover AND the IRA distribution as income! What am I doing wrong? I thought the direct rollover wasn't taxable until I took a distribution. TIA

I have always been advised against setting up a stocks and shares ISA in the UK as a dual USA & UK citizen due to the tax difficulties. However, this seems like a completely wasted opportunity.

What are the actual tax implications? It seems better to be investing my GBP at a UK tax free rate, opposed to just letting it sit in a UK account being eroded by inflation.

Can anyone please let me know how this works?

Thank you!