# USC Self-employed abroad - Schedule C seems unnecessary but not sure



## JZ35 (May 27, 2015)

Hello,

I am a US citizen who is self-employed and I am putting together my US taxes for 2014. 

Last year I was told to file Schedule C-EZ since my expenses were less than the equivalent of $5,000, however, this year they exceeded that amount and from what I understand I must fill in the regular Schedule C form. 

The problem with the regular Schedule C form is that it is fairly detailed and the way they ask to report expenses differs a bit from what is normal here. For example, I don't understand why they want to know about my car related expenses in such great detail. 

I started to fill this form out and it just seems ridiculous that I would need to provide such detail for a self-employed business abroad. Its like I'm doing my accounting twice - once for Poland and once for the US. 

I qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, so I am wondering if I even have to fill out Schedule C at all since I wouldn't even owe any US tax on my self-employed earnings. 

Does anyone have any experience with this Schedule C thing? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I contend that if your revenue falls within the FEIE limits, you shouldn't have to fill out the Schedule C at all, but there are other opinions on that. Still, if your total revenue from your business is under the FEIE limit (getting close to $100,000 lately), there's no reason you MUST take all the expenses you possibly can eek out of the business. If you don't want to fill out all the detail on car expenses, just skip it and fill in a few nominal expenses.

I don't believe I've ever heard of anyone being audited for not declaring all their business expenses - particularly if they owe no tax anyhow.
Cheers,
Bev


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