Tax questions

Hello,
I am relieved to have found this website! I am an American married to a British citizen and I am living in the UK. I have been here for 8 years. This evening my father brought to my attention that I should be paying US tax. Call me stupid, but I had no idea that I should be doing so. I have been working almost the whole time I have lived here. Please can anyone tell me exactly what I should do to correct this error and how much trouble I could be in?  Is there a form I have to obtain or something?

Any light shed on the subject would be greatly appreciated! 

First of all - don't panic!

Unless you have been earning something like $80k p/a in the U.K, you won't have anything to pay.

There's a lot of info about it on the site if you do a search. The IRS is so used to this, my husband and I also didn't know he needed to file for the 7 years he lived in the UK and we needed the past 3 years for our visa application, so we just filed them all- no problem at all.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/irs/index.htm

The US tax system requires US citizens to file each year.  You need to file at least 3 years of US returns.

For US tax purposes you need to report worldwide income and gains, including employer contributions to UK pension plans and other items that would be tax-free in the UK such as UK child benefit, interest and dividends in an ISA and premium bond prizes. If you have invested in a UK unit trust or investment trust you will be subject to penal rates of tax.

Up to $80,000 worth of foreign earned incomed can be excluded each year.

In addition to filing income tax returns in the US you need to file a form TDF90-22.1 each year if the balance in your UK bank account exceeded the equivalent of $10,000 (even for a day).  These now carry an automatic $10,000 penalty for late filing.

As you and your spouse have different domiciles you may also need to consider inheritance and estate tax planning as you cannot leave things to each other free of tax if either of you die.

In addition to filing income tax returns in the US you need to file a form TDF90-22.1 each year if the balance in your UK bank account exceeded the equivalent of $10,000 (even for a day). These now carry an automatic $10,000 penalty for late filing.

Wow that is amazing, even for a freaking DAY???  How about a few hours? lol.

I get it, it gets touched in, it gets filed. Son of a biscut.

How do you file for past years??

I had filed the first year I was here, but then stopped thinking that I didn't need to as my income was NEVER going to be where I would ever have to tax on it.  I guess I was wrong?