Tax Time!!

I really do HATE this time of year, mostly because it confuses the sh!t out of me!

Last year I filed my taxes online with TurboTax.  They originally said that if I did not recieve a W2 in the US, that I did not need to file taxes.  I further explained to him that I had foreign earned income because I was working in the UK.  This seemed to have confused him  In the end, I ended up spending about an hour or so on the phone with the guy there and got it done, but it was difficult, well just confusing.

I was not in the US for 365 days out of the year between Jan 1st 2012 and December 31 2012 so I pass the physical presence test.

I have earned about £20,000 in the UK in 2012 and I do not have the equivilent of $10,000 in a UK bank account.

I had to call a favor from my sister to pay for it as the website would not accept my UK debit card.

Can anyone reccomend an easy to use company to file with?

I have just been on Turbo Tax website and it says that I do not qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion and that I will owe $1,631   

Those sorts of programs don't cope well with foreign income. It's much much easier to just do it by hand yourself and mail the paper forms. If all you have is a UK salary, use the 1040 and 2555-EZ. If you have a bank account that pays interest, also do Schedule B. It will take 10 minutes.

It will take 10 minutes.

Hehehehehe....I'm seriously feeling completely inadequate then! I've been sitting here this morning for the last 90 minutes and I'm lost!  Oh well, another cup of coffee I think!

Step 1: Calculate your January to January gross income based on your payslips. That is the number that goes in the 2555-EZ and the Wages line of the 1040.
Step 2: Follow the instructions for the 2555-EZ and 1040 from there. Your AGI will be zero if all your income is exempt.
Step 3: Carry through the zeroes to the bottom.

If you have interest income, put that in the taxable interest line of the 1040 and complete Schedule B. Your AGI will then be whatever the amount of interest is. Unless you make serious amounts of interest, your AGI will still be less than your exemption and you get zeroes eventually.

This is for straightforward cases of filing single or MFS with no children or other exemptions, deductions or credits. If you have a more complicated case obviously it will take more time!

Hehehehehe....I'm seriously feeling completely inadequate then! I've been sitting here this morning for the last 90 minutes and I'm lost!   Oh well, another cup of coffee I think!

I think it's one of those things that takes a while to figure out the right documents and feel confident about, but once you get those under control, it will only take 10 minutes.    

Next year should be easier because you'll know what to do.    At least I'm hoping it's like that...... I won't be filling out anything besides the 1040 since I didn't work in the UK in 2012, but I'm trying to get a handle on it for next year (and the rest of my life ).

Good luck!  

hehehehe! I kept getting a negative amount in line 22 (taxable income) because I kind of skipped putting hubbies foreign wages into line 7  oops  . Good thing we got more ink for the printer as I do believe I will be re-printing all the forms!

Someone on this site recommended TaxACT to me and I found it worked very well even with foreign tax credits, a K-1 partnership and pensions - I always had problems with TurboTax. Their support was terrific, albeit I was contacting them in January when they weren't busy. It was very cheap. (I don't work for them).