Travel
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FAQ
"How much does traveling cost?"
Cost of living(rent, utilities, wifi, groceries) is $500 USD per month for most countries, $1000 for most others.
"Health care and insurance?"
Health care and insurance are both pennies on the US dollar abroad via medical tourism
"What about visas?"
Usually don't need them, the ones you need are almost all entirely online now, a fifteen minute form and nominal fee that is offset by the drastically lower cost of living in that country.
"How do you make money while abroad?"
Any job that nets you $500 a month works. There are over 2 billion English students globally right now, so native English speakers have lucked into a guaranteed job on or offline.
"What qualifications do I need as an English teacher?"
Some countries and schools require a TEFL certificate or prefer candidates with an associate's degree depending on the position, but if you want to teach English, all you need is to be a fluent English speaker.
Rules
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You're welcome!
I love talking about this stuff and have been living abroad for over a decade, resulting in free time all the time, so if you have any travel questions now or down the line, let me know!
I definitely have questions as will be leaving soon. Do I still have to file my normal taxes? Like can this be done through one of the filing services (taxact or whatnot?) or do I just fill out this form and mail it too…the embassy?
You file taxes normally every year at the regular time, absolutely use an online service and then e-file directly with the IRS. Cheapest, fastest, easiest way to do it. Taxact will work fine.
Snail mail, you would mail it back to your US state's IRS office, but it's not at all worth the trouble.
Feel free to ask me as many questions as cross your mind, I seriously have an absurd amount of free time and like helping people get independent.
Thank you! I assume something like taxact would prompt me with that form then. This is really good to know as I was worried about having to pay taxes I absolutely could not afford with my lower income in a different country
For sure!
It's been hit or miss that I've been prompted for 2555, but i've used several online services and they definitely all have the form available with guidance to fill in. Long and short is, fill out basic info(name, address, annual earned income), check the "physical presence test" box, write out the dates and countries you lived in that year outside of the US. If those dates are over 330 days, you qualify. It's a pretty short form and saves travelers a looot of money.
You mentioned sending it to the State office. As an expatriate I do not file state taxes as I earn no income in any state.
That question was regarding federal income taxes, not state income taxes.
You're doing state taxes right.
You do not need to file state income taxes for a state you have not earned any income in.
Then why not send returns to the main IRS office in Austin? Why choose a state office?
Different US states and tax preparation services ask filers to send their federal tax returns to different IRS tax centers for processing around the country.
If you want to file a paper federal return as an expat, which I don't recommend, you can mail it to the Austin office, or any IRS office, which may forward your federal return where it needs to go(IRS HQ is in DC), but if the US address you use on your federal taxes is in a state that designates a specific IRS office to mail your federal taxes to, I suggest following the IRS instructions.
To belabor the point, I strongly recommend e-filing instead of paper filing to avoid the above and many other complications and costs.
I don't put a US address on my federal tax forms because I don't have one.
Wow. Big question here: I've lived 330+ days/yr in Europe for the past 5 years, am a US Citizen, and get paid in Euros. My Tax Home is verified as the USA. I haven't filed US Taxes since moving here. My income has been well below $125,000 USD/yr this whole time. Am I to fill this form out using the amount in Euros, per my yearly European country's tax office statements (yearly tax returns), or do I have to backpedal each and convert the Euros to USD? Hope this was clear, pry away. Thanks in advance. LOLseas
You need to file taxes, even if you don't owe anything. That's part of being a citizen of the United States. You really need to reach out to a CPA to file this for you and get squared away. The foreign income tax exclusion just means you don't have to pay taxes in the US under a certain amount. You may still need to pay taxes to the country where you are residing in. This is only with countries where we have an agreement with.
Depending on the state in which your address is in, you may have to pay state taxes. This is not part of the foreign income tax exclusion, that is only for federal.
Have you been paying taxes in Europe while living there?
As far as I'm aware(not an expert, just experienced), you should have been filing your US taxes those past five years, regardless of whether you have to pay any actual taxes or how long you've been out of the US.
Yes, when you fill out 2555, you'd convert your euro income from your pay statements to USD and that would be your reported annual earned income that you enter on your taxes. If it's under 125k and you're outside of the US, you don't have to pay income taxes on any of your earned income.
You'll want to file your US taxes sooner than later if you haven't yet, since living abroad does not exempt US citizens from annually filing taxes, even if you don't need to pay any. If the IRS finds you before you remedy the situation, they get to decide the penalties and fees.
These guys have a pretty good FAQ for US expats living abroad who haven't filed in a while, and it boils down to "file the last 3 years, and the sooner the better".
Don't worry, this isn't an "everything is over" situation, I had to help other expats in the same position who came out okay without significant penalties. Read that FAQ and again, the sooner you catch up on US tax filings, the better. If you only work at a single company and don't have many investments, it won't take very long to fill out and file these forms, which you will be able to claim the FEIE on each year as long as you were outside of the US 330+ days said year.
If you have non-US assets(non-US bank accounts, non-US investments) that cumulatively added up to more than $10,000 USD at any point during the tax year you're filing, you also have to disclose the accounts and amounts to the IRS via the separate online FBAR form here for each year you had more than 10k in non-US assets. If you had more than 10k, the FBAR is required reporting each year just like filing your taxes, and is another better-sooner-than-later thing. The FBAR includes a drop-down menu for "why are you filing late?" because it's so common and you can select "I didn't realize disclosure was required" each year you're catching up on.
Let me know if you want any clarification or have further questions!
Thanks so much for all of this!
You're welcome, have a good one!