# IRS fines for Expats?



## Weston1959 (Mar 25, 2015)

Hi, I am a US citizen and have been living in Germany for over 30 years. I was self employed the entire time and am now recently retired. Over the years, I was told by the German finance office and also by my CPA that I do not have to pay or even file US taxes. Since the start of FATCA, I have learned that this is not correct and I should have been filing the entire time. Since I am now retired, I have no intentions of filing back taxes to the US. MY question is..... since I have no assets in the US and do not intend to return, what can the US do if the IRS assesses fines for not filing taxes or FBAR reports, and I just ignore them?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

OK, the "fines" for not filing income taxes come down to a percentage of the taxes owed. Chances are, you owed no (or very little) tax so even if you "fessed up" your penalty would be pretty much negligible. There is also the fact that IRS agents are expected to return a certain "average" return over all the cases they audit and pursue. That further reduces the chances of your being caught out - and with no assets in the US, there's darned little they can do about it even if they do decide you owe back taxes.

The FBAR stuff has been around for a LONG time now and I have yet to hear of any case where they have pursued someone simply for failure to file, unless there is a significant tax liability related to the case. Still, with this new FATCA stuff, it remains to be seen how they will ultimately go after this side of things. But one can hope they will continue to pursue only the more lucrative cases (which is how it normally works).

Net-net, I'd say you're better off to just continue to lay low and stay off their radar until and unless you get some sort of correspondence from them. (Don't hold your breath.)
Cheers,
Bev


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## Weston1959 (Mar 25, 2015)

Thanks for your input, Bev. Your comments pretty well sum up my plans....


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