US Expat Taxes 101

The CEO of MyExpatTaxes on US filing deadlines and thresholds for Americans abroad, and why most expats aren't double taxed.

  • Members only
  • Recorded webinar
  • 54 min
  • July 20, 2026

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About this session

Natalie, the CEO of MyExpatTaxes, explains how to file US taxes while living abroad. Stephanie from Expatsi hosts. The talk runs from filing deadlines and thresholds through the expat tax benefits, and ends with the FBAR and FATCA forms for non-US financial accounts. A section on how Social Security is taxed abroad is included.

Filing and paying are different. Most expats owe no US tax, but anyone whose worldwide income passes the filing threshold still has to file. Audience questions focus on renting out and later selling a US home, and on how foreign wages affect the taxable share of Social Security. Natalie closes with advice for people still planning a move, including selling US property before leaving.

Key takeaways

  • If you're abroad on April 15, you get an automatic two-month extension to June 15, but your return has to include a statement claiming it. If you owe tax, it pays to model your return and pay by April 15, because interest and fees start accruing after that date.
  • If you're married filing separately, your filing threshold is only $5. You can file that way and note that your spouse is a nonresident alien, without getting them an ITIN.
  • More than $400 of net self-employment profit means you must file, and self-employment tax is 15.3%. In countries without a totalization treaty with the US, such as New Zealand, Singapore and Mexico, self-employed Americans owe it to the US.
  • The foreign earned income exclusion covers up to $130,000 of earned income like salary or self-employment, not pensions, rental or investment income. Claiming it on Form 2555 blocks the additional child tax credit, while unused foreign tax credits carry over for 10 years.
  • If you're salaried in a country with a higher income tax rate than the US and have children under 17 with valid Social Security numbers, the foreign tax credit approach can bring a refund of up to $1,700 per child.
  • You must file an FBAR if the combined maximum balances of all your non-US financial accounts pass $10,000 at any point in the year, even if the same money moved between accounts. Its effective deadline is always October 15, even on a weekend or holiday.
  • When you sell a property you rented out, the depreciation you were allowed is added back to your profit even if you never claimed it. Sold for $500,000 with a $400,000 cost basis and $50,000 of allowed depreciation, the taxable profit is $150,000.

Chapters

  1. 0:02Welcome from Expatsi and how to submit questions
  2. 1:51Natalie of MyExpatTaxes introduces the agenda
  3. 2:55Filing deadlines: April 15, June 15, October 15 and December 15
  4. 7:17Who must file: citizens, green card holders and filing thresholds
  5. 13:09Contributing to a US IRA from abroad, and no good free file option
  6. 15:43Double taxation, tax treaties and the savings clause
  7. 23:30Foreign earned income exclusion vs. foreign tax credit vs. treaties
  8. 30:18Totalization treaties and when Social Security is taxable abroad
  9. 32:44FBAR and FATCA: reporting non-US financial accounts
  10. 38:24Q&A: renting and selling a US home, French pensions, Social Security
  11. 46:48Tax advice before you move, and MyExpatTaxes' country partners

Questions from the session

Do I have to file US taxes if I live abroad?

If you're a US citizen or a green card holder, yes. You're taxed on worldwide income, and if it passes the filing threshold you must file, even if you'll owe nothing. Green card holders stay in the system even after leaving the US unless they properly give up the card. The filing thresholds are much lower than the foreign earned income exclusion, so earning under the exclusion doesn't mean you can skip filing.

Is there a legal way to pay no US income tax while working abroad?

One way: work remotely as a W-2 employee for a US employer while physically outside the US for 330 full days in a consecutive 12-month period, then exclude up to $130,000 of wages with the foreign earned income exclusion. Ask your employer not to withhold Social Security, which is hard to get back. Moving around means you don't set up tax residency elsewhere. It doesn't work if you're self-employed, because self-employment tax of 15.3% still applies.

What happens with taxes if I rent out my US home after moving abroad?

Report the rental income on your US return. If you're a tax resident elsewhere, that country may also need to know, and you can normally claim the US tax as a credit there. When you sell, you may lose the section 121 exclusion ($250,000 single, $500,000 joint) if you haven't lived there two of the last five years. Allowed depreciation is also added back to your profit, even if you never claimed it.

Can the foreign earned income exclusion reduce tax on my Social Security benefits?

No. Social Security isn't earned income, so the exclusion can't be used against it. Wages you exclude with it are also added back when you calculate the modified adjusted gross income that decides how much of your Social Security is taxable. Net investment income tax works the same way.

Transcript

Auto-generated from the session’s captions and lightly corrected; it may contain errors.

0:02Hello everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to today's session. Uh, if this is your first time coming to an Expatsi webinar, I'd love to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie Stone Rob and I am the chief revenue officer here at Expatsi. Today, we're going to be talking about everybody's favorite topic, taxes, but it is a an an important one, and it's one that we get a lot of questions about. What is my tax obligation? What does that look like?

0:28How do I make sure that I'm doing things the right way? Who can I trust when it comes to taxes? And that's why we have invited my expat taxes to come today and talk all about what you need to know about filing your US taxes from abroad. Before I turn things over to Natalie, just a couple quick pieces of housekeeping. Number one, um we are recording this session. We will make sure that everybody gets a copy of the recording. So, if you need to bounce early, your internet cuts out or you're like me and you're terrible at taking notes, don't worry. We got you. You'll

1:00have a chance to review everything. Second, we always encourage questions during our sessions. And of course, this one is no different. Down at the bottom of your Zoom window, you're going to see a little box says uh Q&A right below. It has a question mark right in the center. You can click on that at any point in time and type in any questions that you have related to your tax obligation. Uh please don't feel like you have to wait until the end or wait for us to call out for questions. If Natalie mentioned something 10 minutes into today's webinar and you're like that reminds me

1:33dot dot dot cool. Click on Q&A, type your question in when it's fresh in your mind. That said, we will wait until the end and just knock out all the questions one by one. So, if you type in your question, um, I promise we see it and we will get you taken care of. I think that's everything that I have up top.

1:51Natalie, I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to you. I want to first off, thank you so much for joining us today and teaching our audience everything they need to know about taxes. Thank you for having me. So, as I always say, for anyone that is joining or will watch this recording later, thanks for your time. I know it's not the most interesting topic, but yes, it is an important one. And I get it. I moved abroad in 2015, and I get it. Let's just put it that way, right? So, anyways, I'm Natalie Goldstein. I'm living in Austria. I'm

2:23from California and the CEO of My Expert Taxes were the leading tax offer for US expats. And let's jump into what you should know about expat taxes. So, we'll talk about general expat 101. When do you need to file? What do you need to file? And then it is a hot topic that a lot of people ask about. So, we have a section about social security abroad just in case that's something that you're curious about. Obviously, if I don't touch on a topic that you want to know about, just let me know in the questions. And then in addition to your

2:55US tax return, we also have to talk about F bars and FATKA because that is also a big requirement when you're living abroad in terms of documentations and form filling. So yeah, when do you even have to file a US tax return, right? I think that's probably the most asked question because it is a little confusing if you're living abroad. When you're living abroad, there's a lot of different dates. All of them being the 15th of some month, right? because that's just the date the IRS really likes. But essentially, it goes April 15th is the first deadline, which is for

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