# Lived outside USA for 7 years, never filed taxes. Now back, what to do?



## choi888 (Apr 7, 2016)

I am currently 28 years old. Since I was 21, I lived in Asia, supporting myself through online poker. US citizen.

I never filed taxes in this time. I made less than 85k-100k each year, is excluded. I was living overseas 11/12 months during every year in that span (except for 1).

I'm now living in the States. No idea what to do in regards to taxes. Still have money in 2 poker accounts, though that money is from when a friend provided my whole poker bankroll (which I would get a cut), and it is not a small amount.

Any recommendation on what to do?


Also, there is a chance I work on something, where I may receive a mid 5 figures+ investment from a friend, and money would be moved in and out of my bank accounts.

While everything would be legit, I want to prepare myself if I were to get looked at by the IRS, and be able to explain the last 7 years as well as the decently big amount of money I am moving around.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

As long as the period you weren't filing is also the period where you were overseas (i.e. met the requirements of either the physical presence test or the bona fide resident test), you should be able to use the Streamlined Filing procedures to bring your filings up to date: https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Streamlined-Filing-Compliance-Procedures

I would, however, check into the little matter of whether or not you can exclude your poker proceeds as "foreign earned income." You'll also need to back file 6 years of FBARs to report your foreign accounts.
Cheers,
Bev


----------



## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Even assuming that poker-related income is Foreign Earned Income (and thus excludable), the Self-Employment Tax probably applies in this case. You might have to catch up on Social Security and Medicare contributions (with a bit of interest due since you're late paying those). Online poker accounts are indeed FinCEN Form 114 (and IRS Form 8938) reportable.

If you only fairly recently came back to the United States then the offshore variant of the Streamlined Program should be available to you, and that'd be a very good choice in my view.


----------

