Tax Help, Please

I am an American expat living in Wales with my Welsh husband. We intend to remain in the UK. This will be my first time filing taxes as an expat and I'm not sure how this works. We looked at the taxes for expats website, but it would cost us $450 to file through them. When I lived in America, I always used turbotax for free and never had any issues. Is there any reason I couldn't file through them? Are there any additional forms I would need to include?

Last year (Jan -Dec 2015), I only worked for 3 months in America and 5 months in the UK having moved to the UK in April. What is the most affordable, yet effective way to file my taxes? Thank you for all of your help.

You can definitely file your US taxes yourself. Look at either Turbotax or TaxAct. It's probably best for you to file "Married Separately" to avoid exposing your spouse to US tax. Make sure you qualify as a bona fide foreign resident and you can either exclude up to $100k in foreign earned income from US taxation of claim foreign tax credits. Do you have any investments or savings accounts in the US or the UK?


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Thank you! I don't have anything in the US and I just have a normal joint account with my husband. Would there be any issues from this?

Thank you! I don't have anything in the US and I just have a normal joint account with my husband. Would there be any issues from this?

Probably not much of an issue. Did it go over $10k at any time last year? Does it pay any interest?


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Did our joint account go over $10k? it probably went to around £7,000-8,000... Is that okay? He makes most of the money.

Did our joint account go over $10k? it probably went to around £7,000-8,000... Is that okay? He makes most of the money.

Well using the official US Treasury rate of $0.675/pound that makes the balance of your account $11,851. That's greater than $10,000 and you will have to file a FinCEN form with the US Treasury, just google it. It's done online or with a pdf and is pretty simple. This is separate from your tax return. Other than that your tax filing should be pretty straight forward.

1) Make sure you wait until you are a bonafide foreign resident (ie 330 days in the UK) before you file. This will also get you around the ACA mandate.
2) File "Married Separately".
3) Use the foreign earned income exclusion to eliminate your wages from US tax.
4) Enter any UK interest you got on bank accounts and apply foreign tax credits for any UK tax paid.
5) File your FinCEN.

I'm trying to file with Turbotax. I have two main issues.

1) It won't let me file because it wants my husband's social security number. He hasn't got one, because he is Welsh...

2) I was only an American resident for part of the year, because I was in the UK for the rest of it. It wants me to name the other states I live in, but there weren't any. I lived in Indiana until I came to the UK.

I'm trying to file with Turbotax. I have two main issues.

1) It won't let me file because it wants my husband's social security number. He hasn't got one, because he is Welsh...

2) I was only an American resident for part of the year, because I was in the UK for the rest of it. It wants me to name the other states I live in, but there weren't any. I lived in Indiana until I came to the UK.

Try TaxAct. You also may find that you have to print the forms out fill in some details by hand and mail the forms.

1) Are you filing "Married Separately'? if so you would enter NRA for the spouses SS#.

2) You might have to file by mail. Remember to file your Indiana part year taxes too.

Can TaxAct be used for the Streamlined Programme, or just normal tax returns?

Can TaxAct be used for the Streamlined Programme, or just normal tax returns?

It can, if the correct years of TaxAct are used. You cannot use the 2015 version for returns other than 2015. I believe the Streamlined returns must be mailed, and not E-filed.