# US taxes: Getting help outside the US



## Bevdeforges

One big disadvantage of living abroad is that it can be trickier to find the sort of income tax assistance you may be used to in the US. It IS entirely possible to prepare your own US tax returns from overseas, but if you need help, there are a few places you can turn.

There are *IRS offices in four US Embassies outside the US: Beijing (China), Frankfurt (Germany), London (UK) and Paris (France)*. These Embassies post tax information on their websites, including contact information (e-mail and phone numbers) and office hours they are available to the public to answer questions. They also prepare their own pamphlets available for download on topics relevant to US taxpayers in the area they serve (exchange rates, links to IRS information, etc.). *The Paris consulate publishes a pamphlet each year that is particularly useful and clear *(as well as being short and to the point) http://photos.state.gov/libraries/france/5/irs/2011taxbooklet.pdf

If your local embassy or consulate publishes *a list of English speaking professionals, you may be able to find tax attorneys or accountants nearby. *Check, too, the consulate list of *American expat groups*, as they often sponsor tax seminars or conduct *VITA (Volunteer in Tax Assistance) *programs for their members or the expat community in general. On the website for the* National Association of Enrolled Agents* in the US you can use their “Find an enrolled agent” search function to locate EA’s outside the US.

*The IRS website* (Internal Revenue Service) has *all publications and forms* available for download, as well as fact sheets and other up to the minute information. You can also get copies of forums and instructions *for prior years*, if you need them. 

This year the *IRS *has set up a fairly comprehensive *"International section" *with links to much of the information you may need: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97324,00.html 

You can usually purchase *tax preparation software online* from anywhere in the world (though you may have to pay local VAT on top of the purchase price). There are also online sites that allow you to prepare your returns “in the cloud” - just google “tax preparation software” or check for familiar (or likely sounding) names: TurboTax, TaxAct, TaxCut, etc. Some sites will allow you to use their software for free and then print out or e-file your forms from the site. (See also the thread here on e-filing.)


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## RTRP

*US Tax Help for US citizens living abroad*

There are also some reasonably priced US Tax Preparers living outside the U.S., who deal exclusively with US expats, such as myself


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## BBCWatcher

If possible I'd recommend choosing someone who understands the intersection between U.S. taxes and the taxes in the particular country where you live. That's especially true if there's a tax treaty between the U.S. and that country.


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## diamonddee

I'll be looking for help making out my 2012 US and Canadian tax returns. Am very ticked having to pay a well known tax preparer $600 to do both.


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## Bevdeforges

diamonddee said:


> I'll be looking for help making out my 2012 US and Canadian tax returns. Am very ticked having to pay a well known tax preparer $600 to do both.


It depends a bit on just how complex your finances are, but if you're basically dealing with regular salary and maybe some bank interest and simple investments, your US taxes shouldn't require expensive assistance. 

But thanks to all the fiscal cliff nonsense, the 2012 tax forms won't be finalized until a little later this month (January 2013). The IRS will not accept 2012 filings until January 30th in any event.

In the meantime, Publication 54 for 2012 is ready and available on the IRS website. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf
Cheers,
Bev


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## diamonddee

Thanks for the quick reply, Bev, much appreciated. Hubby and I are retired, pension income from both US and Canada, including Social Security and a couple of US pensions, plus Old AGe Security and Canada Pension and some investment interest. The confusion for me comes with Foreign Tax Credits. Any assistance to omit $600 preparation would be appreciated.


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## Bevdeforges

The principle for foreign tax credits is simple: you pay your taxes to your "home" government and then what you've paid already is credited against what you owe on your US taxes. Unfortunately, the form for foreign tax credits (form 1116) seems to be far more complicated than that these days.

On pensions (government pensions at least) the idea is that you pay any taxes to the government paying you the pension - at least they have "first dibs" on taxes due.
Cheers,
Bev


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## PeteC

Ah yes.. last year I attempted to file my own taxes, I had contacted the IRS asking the best way to do this, made the filing to the best of my understanding and sent it over. A few months passed and I received a “corrected filing” where I owed $10,000… needless to say I wasn’t thrilled! I ended up trying to call the IRS but was getting bounced from person to person, never getting to someone who understood some of the expat differences when filing… in the end, I looked on the internet for answers and found this guy in B.C. who did US & Canadian taxes.. it’s been very helpful and I was able to get it all sorted out. 

No doubt, it ended up costing me much more than I would have hoped but at least the problem is fixed. At some point, I’ll go over the filings to understand the exact changes and perhaps be able to file myself.. I guess it’ll depend on how much the cost increases by over time


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