Tax Implications...Visiting the US

I live in the UK - I got here Jan 28th
My clients are in the US and I am paid to a US Bank...

I want to go back for Labor Day but I thought you could only be in the states for 6 weeks or you pay full taxes to the US?

I am tried to look this up but I dont even know what I am looking for...

Can anyone shed any light?

thanks
Jenn

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p54/index.html

This is the link for the publication by the IRS for Citizens Abroad. It will probably have the info you need. As for your exact question, I dont know the answer.

If you are an American citizen, you have significantly skewed how US tax works.  You always are required to report worldwide income no matter how much time you are in the US.  While abroad, you have reliefs available to you and some of them require you to met a time test.  Maybe this is what you are thinking of?  By waiting to meet the time test, it just means you file your return later not that these aren't available to you at all.

If you are an NRA, the story changes.

thank you and yes I am confused....

A friend of mine did contract work over here Europe and Iraq and I thought he could not be in the states for more then 6-8 weeks or he had to pay MORE US taxes since he was on US soil for X amount of time...

I guess because US/UK is worldwide income it is different and that publication is like reading Spanish for me..

thanks

With your friend, it seems likely that we are talking about the time test 
that I mentioned before.  With contract work it can get slightly more complicated because one of the releifs available (FEIE) requires your tax home to have shifted and requires you to be out of the country for a minimum time period.  With contract work, this becomes much harder.  Without FEIE, you would then rely on foreign tax credits.  Again, as he works contract work, he would either not pay much foreign tax or would pay to a lower rate country (like Iraq).  So in this case, he may not have enough FTCs to cover the US liability.  In his case, time back in the US could increase his US liability.  But his situation isn't yours and is somewhat more atypical.  You cannot apply other people's very different circumstances to yourself and expect the same outcome.

You could do with reading the forums and there are plenty of threads that specifically explain how being abroad affects your taxes.  Starting here is a good place:  http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=30822.0.  The thread is old so ignore any specific references to numbers as this will have likely changed.

Also, since I assume you now consider yourself a resident of the UK, you'll probably need to register as 'self employed' for HMRC.  (I did this because I'm getting paid for some work by a US company). http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/iwtregister-as-self-employed.htm

Don't know much about this whole US/UK tax thing - although you do need to file a US tax return (even if you're not living in the country US tax), when you are a citizen.