# FATCA questions US citizen in UK



## americaninlondon (Nov 16, 2016)

Hello 

I have been living in London since 2006 and only lived in the US for a year or two when I was 5/6 years old.

I hold a US passport and am here on a Spouse Visa.
I received a letter from my bank Barclays about filling in a FATCA form and sending it back.

I was just a bit confused as to what to do..

I will fill in the form but after shall I just wait to hear back from them or do I need to file for tax in the US as well?

I have been paying tax here as I am working and I read about some Foreign Tax Credit which avoids double taxation? 

If anyone has any information I would be happy for your help.

Regards
Christian


----------



## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Chances are, what you received from your bank was concerning a W-9 form, which is a document for the bank to obtain your US social security number. FATCA forms are mostly forms you are supposed to file along with your US tax returns - or the annual listing of your foreign bank accounts called either FBAR or FinCEN.

Depending on your accounts in the bank, you may or may not need to do anything further. (The bank does not forward the W-9 on to the IRS - it's an information form for the bank only.)

Officially speaking, you "should" be filing US tax returns in any year when your worldwide income exceeds the filing threshold for your filing status. There are a couple different ways to avoid double taxation - the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (for salary and wage income) and the Foreign Tax Credit. Both these are explained in the IRS publication 54 for Overseas Taxpayers https://www.irs.gov/publications/p54/

It's frankly up to you whether you want to "get right" with the IRS or not. Unless you've got lots of income and/or fancy investments, it's unlikely you'll be found out. In fact, most folks in your situation (i.e. with few or no ties to the US) won't owe any taxes to the US anyhow, even if they are "supposed" to file.
Cheers,
Bev


----------

