TAXES AFTER YOU LEAVE THE COUNTRY

Roberta_Ribeiro wrote:

Ok, but how am I going to pay if I will not have a bank account anymore in the USA?

Money order

ABD79 wrote:

Are you a US citizen now? Or just have a green card? All I can say is that my husband who has dual citizenship (born in America but moved here to be with me 17 years ago) didn’t file his US  tax returns for the duration of that period. He didn’t owe any money apart from something silly like $30 over that whole period. Anyway, when I recently applied for my non-immigration US visa I had a bit of a telling off at the US Embassy as he hadn’t done them and it had flagged up. My visa wa denied on the spot until he did them and we had to get a solicitor to get them all put through quickly and correctly (to the tune of £2,500!) He didn’t get in trouble as he was never informed by anyone that he needed to do them but I believe if you are a US Citizen then you’ll be expected to fill in the outrageously long winded forms every year. Even if you owe nothing. What’s worse, is that once in the UK, if you have over a certain amount of money in savings in the UK, you have to have that taxed too! It does make me laugh how they left us over taxes yet they are worse for taxing than us as we don’t have to pay UK tax if we are not working/Living in the UK and our savings certainly aren’t taxed when living abroad. AND we get to keep all lottery winnings! Anyway, that’s a whole other gripe... )

I am calling your statement out that back owed 30$ taxes by your spouse caused a B2 visa refusal. Refusals are given in writing. What was the specific reason?
US citizens and residents are required by law to annual tax returns reporting world wide income. Our's are a bit elaborate and it took SO 30 minutes on line yesterday.
Your spouse can always renounce his US citizenship.

OMG, most of the answers here totally miss the point. Lot of people file from overseas as the US requires this of its citizens abroad. All of the information and forms can easily be found and downloaded at www.irs.gov Payments can be done with credit cards.

One should also look at the IRS site about filing requirements. US citizens cannot just skip filing even if they wouldn’t owe any tax. The statement by ADB79 is nonsensical because the problem is not owing 30 dollars but the failing to file which is a serious offence. The reply by twostep that one can simply give up their US citizenship is also false. It is actually complicated to do this. One has to pay around a USD 2,350 fee and show that they have filed properly and paid any tax due from the last 5 years.

The other complication for people like Roberta-Ribiero, for example, who is not a US citizen but having lived and worked in the States will be considered a “US Person” by the IRS. This does not automatically change by leaving the States. And even when an American lives abroad and gives up their US citizenship they have to go through a process to get certified as a non-US Person or else they STILL need to file! Don’t ask me to explain the legality or sense of this but it is the law. I don’t know all of the details of what determines if a person outside of the States is considered a US Person but definitely if they spend part of their time back in the States to work. I’m not sure if just owning property or visiting also counts.

The upshot is that to get free of the filing requirements overseas is difficult and not just determined by citizenship. Realistically, if one is a non-citizen, or one who gives up their citizenship and doesn’t go back to the States then they could ignore just the whole subject. Yet this might be burning their bridges if they ever think to work or visit for a long period in the States again.

TominStuttgart wrote:

One has to pay around a USD 2,500 fee...

This should be corrected to 2350 USD fee.