Larry's 2015 U.S. Tax Guide for U.S. Expats, Green Card Holders and Non-Resident Aliens in User-Friendly English. Laurence E. 'Larry'
tax obligation for the self-employed is frequently a very rude awakening for the ‘uninformed’…..if you fall into this category, consider yourself forewarned!
Your expat 2015 U.S. tax calendar:
1 January 2015 the tax year begins for individuals who are on a calendar year (come on, now - we're all calendar year taxpayers, whether we like it or not!). The 'Entire taxable year' Begins on January 1 (which falls on a Thursday in 2015). You are on a ‘cash basis’ for tax purposes – if you receive any income in the calendar year, you’ll have to include it during that year. If you ‘earned’ income that you did not receive until the next year (payments that should have been made to you in 2014 that you did not actually receive until sometime during 2015?), then don’t worry about that income – it’ll be part of your 2015 taxable income – unless you receive a Form 1099 which includes that income…..
15 January 2015 This date is the deadline for final payment of estimated federal income taxes for the last voucher of the 2014 1040ES.
31 January 2015 You can 'technically' avoid that 15 January deadline for payment of estimated taxes if you actually file your final tax return and pay final taxes by 31 January. How you are going to do this, though, when the likelihood that all of the forms you are going to need to file correctly, will simply not have been issued by this date?
15 April 2015 Ah, you've all heard of this day - it is tax day, across the land, except for Massachusetts, where they run the Boston Marathon as part of their Patriot's Day holiday, entitling you to file one day late.
Your first quarter, 2015 1040ES is due on this date
Your IRA payment just might be due by this date
Generally, this is the date for filing form 1040 unless you are on extension....gift tax returns are also due on 15 April and it is also the final date for filing an amended tax return for the third previous tax year.
15 June 2015 this one is important for expats! This day, my friends, is the
deadline for filing the 2014 tax return. You'd better file it - and have proof of mailing as 'insurance', or you'd better file an extension of time through 15 October to file (and, if you have sent in a proper letter request from overseas, an additional 2 months to 15 December) You'll still have interest due and underestimated penalties if you underestimated your pre-payments and filed under extension, before your extension deadline, but you'll avoid some very costly penalties by filing your extension request - this extension form is virtually automatically approved. Oh, you can be the first to be penalized in this instance, if your extension application is denied - but I doubt it......! If you are a first time overseas filer, this is also the best date to file a specific form (2350) for filers who simply want to wait until they qualify under the physical presence test (we'll cover this one, later in the book!) in order to take advantage of foreign exclusions.
And...it is also the day for filing voucher #2 of the 1040ES.
30 June 2015 – Did you efile your FinCEN114 by today? You are late, otherwise. Want to find out more? Read that part of the book explaining the world’s stupidest URL – one that common sense would dictate be easy but instead, the government has given this a URL that simply cannot be memorized!
15 September 2015 Voucher # 3, third quarter payment of your 1040ES is due, today, if you are going to owe anything for 2015 - time to pay...!
15 October 2015 Contrary to what the IRS or your accountant might lead you to
believe you definitely can file for further extension through 15 December – but you’d better do this before 15 October. Personally, I try to avoid anything dealing with tax after 15 October (because I value my sanity and, after nearly five decades of doing tax work, I really need to cut off by 15 October!!!) but the IRS will still allow you those extra two months if you file that additional extension.
31 December 2015 The year's over - new income tomorrow? Worry about it next year!! What’s this - you say that in spite of reading this you still have no idea of the tax system? Well, apparently, neither does most of America!
Why? Will it ever change?
Tax rules applying to you, the expatriate U.S. tax filer
O.K...Here we go: these are the rules…..the tax rules applying to you, the expatriate U.S. tax filer (the real ‘nuts and bolts’ reason you’ve probably justified buying this book). We’ve updated where updates are necessary. Otherwise, we left this section pretty much the same as that of last year and the year before that, etc, because it works! If it works, don’t screw with it, only tweak it, as necessary, based upon current law changes, $$ changes, etc, etc, etc
Here’s my ‘executive summary’ of the most important stuff - these are the absolute basics - at least read these because they are ‘unchanging’ - I used them in my first book (The Tax Analects of Li Fei Lao) and I used them way back in the early 1990s, when I printed out my first brochure for expats. Yeah, some of it will be boring but if reading that boring stuff can save you some money, then read it!!
*If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien and meet minimum income standards (anything above your standard deduction plus exemptions), then you are liable for filing an annual U.S. income tax return, regardless of where you are living or where you income is derived. If you are single, you have a 2014 standard deduction of $US 6,200 plus an exemption of $US 3,950, meaning that for all intents and purposes, if your income is under $US 10,150, you don’t have to file…..but***** The United States taxes on worldwide income. You are required to file your return even though you do not owe anything. Yes, there are perks for overseas filers - there’s a foreign earned income exclusion, there’s also a foreign housing exclusion. Yet take a look at the costs of living overseas and in many locations where that housing exclusion is not enough. I have an apartment in Hong Kong. I love that apartment but realize at some point of time I will lose it because the cost of real estate is rising beyond their current, stratospheric levels. Unless you’ve experienced the costs of real estate outside of the U.S. it is truly difficult to conceive of how essential that foreign housing exclusion is. But my friends in Hong Kong who come from other countries don’t have a foreign earned income or housing exclusion because they are not taxed on the income they earn outside of their home country.
*****here’s that ‘caveat’: FATCA seems to directly bypass current law with provisions that extend the statute of limitations to 6 years for 'substantial...omissions'. And would you care to guess what the IRS deems to be a substantial omission? How about $US5,000 and/or 25 percent of reported income derived from offshore assets. Frankly, if the IRS sincerely believes that $US5,000 is substantial, then the U.S. economy is in far deeper a hole than any of us could have ever imagined! Yet what does that mean to you the potential tax filer living overseas who might have under that $US 10,150 reporting threshold but over $US5,000 from overseas……are you subject to those extortion-like FATCA penalties if you don’t file?
Yes, the U.S. is an ‘exception’ to most countries because of its worldwide taxation and filing requirements. Don’t bitch and moan about it, there is nothing you can do about it. You want to file, though, because if the IRS ever inquires about where your tax returns are, before you’ve filed, you are likely to lose that foreign earned income exclusion and housing exclusion, making it a very costly ‘experience’ for non-filers!
* If you are paid by a U.S. employer, from a U.S. corporation, with an annual W-2 issued to you, you are likely going to be subject to withholding for both taxable earned income plus Social Security taxes. Based upon your overseas residency, though, you are still eligible for the foreign earned income exclusion.
* If you are not paid by a U.S. employer and expect to have a tax liability over and above your exempt earned income and housing exclusion (and we’ll get to those exclusionary amounts later on), then you are going to be responsible for filing quarterly estimated tax filings and