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"How much does traveling cost?"

Cost of living(rent, utilities, wifi, groceries) is $500 USD per month for most countries, $1000 for most others.

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Health care and insurance are both pennies on the US dollar abroad via medical tourism

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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.

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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.

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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.

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bitofarambler@crazypeople.online

Hey US taxpayers: if you live outside the US 330+ days per year, you don't have to pay federal earned income tax on your first ~126,500 USD each year with IRS form 2555 (infosec.pub)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by bitofarambler@crazypeople.online to c/bitofarambler@crazypeople.online

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IRS form 2555 qualifies you for the IRS Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, and is a simple form to fill out with the rest of your taxes, takes 5-20 minutes depending on how many countries you lived in that year.

IRS form 2555

IRS instructions

This is the official language of the IRS form 2555 physical presence test:

“You meet the physical presence test if you are physically present in a foreign country or countries 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months including some part of the year at issue. The 330 qualifying days do not have to be consecutive.”

Plainly, it doesn’t matter if you were absent from the United States between January 1st and December 31st to qualify, it only matters that you were not present in the United States for 330 of 365 consecutive days that include, in some part, the current tax year.

You could have been in the US until april, and then outside the US from May until the following april, and that’s fine to claim the FEIE and exclude a variable amount of your earned income tax as determined each year by the IRS (currently at $126,500 annually).

By tax year(Jan. 1 - Dec. 31) you were only out of the country for 270 days, but out of 365 calendar days, you were out of the country for 330+ days from May to April, and so you pass the physical presence test, which qualifies you for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

It can be a US or non-US company that employs and pays you, you just have to be physically outside the US.

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[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Then why not send returns to the main IRS office in Austin? Why choose a state office?

[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I don't put a US address on my federal tax forms because I don't have one.