# How to fill out 1040 if unemployed



## Pinar (Mar 5, 2013)

Hi everyone,

My situation is a little complicated. I've been living in Turkey since 2010 and I'm originally from Turkey but I'm a dual citizen (Turkey-US) so I have to file taxes. I'll file 2555-EZ and 1040. In 2012 I worked for 6 months. If you make more than 400$ in a year you have to report your income to the IRS and I made more than that but now I'm not working so how do I report my previous income on my 1040? Over here your employer doesn't give you any documents on taxes paid (such as W2) and the government doesn't have such services. Should I just write down the amount I earned? I don't own anything so I guess I'll just be entering 0 all over the form except for the student loan interest box. And should I report my bank account balance? 

Thanks.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Yup - you just fill in the amount you earned on line 7. Be sure to report your wages gross (i.e. before any deductions for social insurances or anything else). Then use the 2555-EZ to exclude your earned income and unless you've got any other source of income, you should come up with $0 due.

But check again to see if you really need to file. That $400 threshold is only if you have earnings from self-employment. If you were working for someone, then a higher threshold may apply (depends on your filing status - married, single, head of household, etc.). You may not need to file at all.

If the FEIE excludes all your income, you may not need to bother reporting your student loan interest.

You only report your bank accounts if, in total, your bank accounts outside the US have $10,000 or more. If so, you need to report them all - along with the high balance for the year for each (make a good faith estimate if you don't have the paperwork on that). 
Cheers,
Bev


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## Pinar (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks a lot for the response. Yeah maybe I don't even need to file anything but I want to file anyway to prevent getting into trouble at the airport or something when I get back to the US.

My student loan provider sent me the Form 1098-E but I believe they automatically report that to the IRS so I don't have to attach it.


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