# Self-Employed Business Tax - living abroad



## ex- (Sep 9, 2012)

Hi, I have a question about being self-employed while living abroad for years.
100% of the business income is from Norway.

Using TurboTax I am being told I owe a little more than 10% of my self-employment income as "self-employment tax".
Does this sound normal?

fyi.
I did the deduction forms 2555 (for business income) and 1116 (for capital gains income).
I thought the tax owed would be zero.
Perhaps I'm mistaken?


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

There is a totalisation agreement between the US and Norway so you should not have to pay SE taxes.

To establish your exemption from coverage under the U.S. Social Security system you will nee to establish your exemption by obtaining a certificate of coverage from the National Insurance Administration

National Insurance Administration
International Affairs Division 
N-0241 Oslo

You would then attach a copy to your return.

The second part of the equation is the real question... to which I do not have an answer as I am not a TT user.

How to you flag the exemption in TT, or work around it and yet still be able to e-file.

You might hunt around a TT community for advice or raise the question with TT.

You might also be lucky.. there could be a TT user in the forum...


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I don't know about Turbo Tax specifically, but generally speaking if you have indicated on your forms that you are "self-employed" most tax programs will calculate the self-employment taxes. Some programs have you tick a box to indicate self-employment - if so, then untick the box. If you have to, fill in your employer name and address (name can simply be "My Own Business" or something similar - they will not care if the address is the same as your home address). For the EIN, I used to fill in "N/A" but if they insist, you can simply insert your US SSN. 

As long as you are properly registered with the "social security" services in your country of residence (and there is a totalisation agreement in place) you should not owe the self-employment tax.


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## ex- (Sep 9, 2012)

Moulard said:


> There is a totalisation agreement between the US and Norway so you should not have to pay SE taxes.
> 
> To establish your exemption from coverage under the U.S. Social Security system you will nee to establish your exemption by obtaining a certificate of coverage from the National Insurance Administration
> 
> ...


thank you


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## ex- (Sep 9, 2012)

Bevdeforges said:


> I don't know about Turbo Tax specifically, but generally speaking if you have indicated on your forms that you are "self-employed" most tax programs will calculate the self-employment taxes. Some programs have you tick a box to indicate self-employment - if so, then untick the box. If you have to, fill in your employer name and address (name can simply be "My Own Business" or something similar - they will not care if the address is the same as your home address). For the EIN, I used to fill in "N/A" but if they insist, you can simply insert your US SSN.
> 
> As long as you are properly registered with the "social security" services in your country of residence (and there is a totalisation agreement in place) you should not owe the self-employment tax.


Thank you as well, really appreciate this


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