Tax Help - Self employed

Hi folks,

Word of warning:    I am TOTALLY confused and admittedly paralyzed about how to go about filing in the US.

That said, I am a self-employed dual citizen living in the UK since 2010.

Of the last three UK tax years, my business has taken a loss in the UK for two of them.  This last tax year, I think I paid very minimal tax on a very minimal profit.

I did not file in the US last year, and will do so when I file this year.  So I've got two years of confusion instead on one, thanks to not filing / being confused beyond belief.
(Please no advice on filing every year, I get it, I should have, but want to focus on doing now, not beating myself up for it)

I've filed the FBAR every year, did my US taxes in 2013 when they were easy breezy before my business went global, just not last year when it all got crazy.

I do not believe I'll owe tax, due to the loss I took.  But I'm super confused about how the tax years fall in the 2 countries.

Do I file the US tax based on the UK tax year, and therefore just transfer the numbers over?

Or do I have to follow the US tax year, and therefore divvy up my receipts/accounts accordingly?

I am SERIOUSLY confused.  I need to handle this ASAP - we are filing my husband's US immigration visa stuff soon so need to have my taxes up to date.

Thank you for being so helpful, and I apologize in advance if I ask lots of questions.
 

Yes you will have to reconcile the UK tax year to fit into the US tax year (Jan-Dec). Oftentimes you can just look at monthly income statements/bank records to determine what was made during the US tax year.

Also, depending on how your business is set up, it may require a separate corporate tax return. If that is the case (ie the business is a separate entity), then you can report it on a Form 5471.

For the visa application you will have to show the last three years so just make sure that everything is reported properly for those years

If it proves too difficult to file, you can always use an expat accountant or even just have a consult or chat with an accountant to get remaining questions answered.

I hope this helps and good luck!

As you suggest, tax for the self-employed can be complex. Here in the UK for example in most cases it is compulsory to use accruals based accounting whereas this is optional in the US. If you owe no tax in the States it is simply not worth getting over-stressed as the IRS will not care a jot what you report.