Streamlined Amnesty Program

Hello All

Apologies im sure this is a haunted topic on this page! I have been living in the UK since 2017 and the whole time I’ve been here I’ve not filed my US taxes (bar 2017)

I’ve been in touch with some expat tax advisers and the lowest quote I’ve got was $900 so im wondering if anyone has gone this process alone and could kindly tell me how they did it?? I would very much not like to be 1k out of pocket if I can help it!

I need to file the following:

2019-2021 Form 1040
2016-2021 FBAR
Nonwillful certification

Any help is immensely helpful to me!

Thank you


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Most folks would indeed use the official penalty-free IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures (SFOP) as the lowest risk and lowest cost way of catching up. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/u-s-taxpayers-residing-outside-the-united-states. Any professional fees you choose to pay will doubtless include 20% VAT. You will also naturally only want to take advice from a dually US & UK qualified tax professional. 

As you correctly note, all the official forms & instructions are available for FREE on the official IRS website https://www.irs.gov/ and with FinCEN here: https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html websites. If you prefer software, the IRS offer several free filing services: https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free. The IRS also offer a great deal of excellent free information including videos: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/taxpayers-living-abroad

I went the SFOP route back in 2017 (19 years after leaving the US) and did everything on my own but then because my tax affairs were more complex than most (shareholder in a close company that was in the process of sale) I had an accountant look it over for me (I'm a Chartered Accountant). I used Damian Talbot @ Warrener Stewart - but it still cost over £1,200.

At the time, i downloaded all of the forms and filled them in myself. If I were to do it again, I'd use software (I recommend TaxAct) because of the error checking and completeness.

FBAR's are a breeze & you can certainly do it yourself - much depends on the complexity of your own tax affairs - if it's a 'bog standard' return (if such a thing exists  ) then going it alone is not difficult.

There's loads of videos online (mainly from tax professionals seeking to frighten you and  take your money!)  but there's an IRS webinar that I found quite useful - it's a bit dated and very dry, but quite informative:

https://www.irsvideos.gov/business/FilingPayingTaxes/StreamlinedFilingComplianceProceduresAComplianceOptionForSomeTaxpayers

I don't know about your own circumstances, but you should also check out your entitlement to retroactive Stimulus payments (up to $3,200 per eligible USC) - which will be an added bonus!