Now we’re living in the UK, how do we sort our US & UK Taxes..?

If its going to be this complicated, we are actually now thinking of waiting a few weeks until we get closure on our new house we’re buying.

This way we won’t have to go through the whole process twice just to change our UK address..??!!  🤔

This shouldn’t run against any time limits just a few more weeks..? 

DooooH..!! 

We’ve just realized now we no longer have a US address and in particular no US phone number,  that my wife’s “My Social Security” online account is no longer accessible..

Just what we need when we will probably need to contact the US SSA in due course..!! 

**** HELP *****

Hey we seriously need some Help here on this problem of not being able to login to “MySSA” or “My Social Security”, from the UK

Firstly, unless I run a VPN, on my iPad,  which makes our location look like we’re in the US we don’t even get the MySSA login Box.

Secondly, after managing to get passed our login ID and Password we’re asked if our US telephone number is still valid to have the security code sent to us.  As we no-longer have a phone on the US telephone network, we can only answer NO here to be taken to a page that wants to post out in the mail, a RESET code that we can use so as to get into the account via a back door, so to speak.

The only problem here is the only mailing address you can enter is a US address, and there’s no-way we can enter our current UK address in the fields.

If it was necessary, we could possibly setup a ‘Virtual US Phone number”, that re-directs it’s received calls and messages to our UK phone, BUT, this doesn’t get around the problem of not being able to receive the RESET code to our current UK address.

I’m just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem, and if so, how have they got around it..?

*** HELP ***

Wish I could help but we kept our US Skype number (~$50/year) for such things and have a daughter living in the USA.

I would put this problem via email to the Federal Benefit Unit in the US Embassy in London. They have been very helpful on SS and Medicare for us this last 12 - 18 months.

https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/federal-benefits/

We used callcentric.com for a phone number You can specify the state in the USA, I think, you want the phone number to be based. We are on the budget plan and while in the UK our monthly bill was about $3.00. It could be set to ring through to our UK phone. All incoming calls were free, outgoing were dirt cheap. (We had a dedicated line through a voip adapter on the computer, so we knew that it was a US call when that phone rang, and used it to phone the USA on.)

You could get a mail forwarding address in the USA but the government knows that those are not residences and only PMB's. I was never able to get SS Online set up using the PMB. If you could use a trusted friend's or family member's address in the US maybe it would work? (Their system also does recognize vpns, so maybe not.)

As stated by others, contact the UK FBU. They are very helpful.

I'm *sure* I have had authentication stuff sent to my email address they have on record... let me poke around.

I get an SS notification via email, that works well. Had checked my record only a couple of weeks back. I use MagicJack for telephone and have done since they started up around 13 years ago. The iPhone or Android app is the best option and free with any hardwired WiFi subscription. Like many similar companies, you get to choose a local area code and can call back to a U.S. landline or mobile for free. I have a long subscription, as they were offering specials on 5 year plans. It will receive some texts, especially person to person, although some automated are hit or miss. I get 2FA's through ok.

Thanks to everyone who’s made suggestions on how my wife can get logged back in on her MySSA account.

We started by trying to get a Virtual US phone number with OpenPhone, but while watching a web seminar with them they admitted that their ‘Virtual Numbers’ cannot be used for 2 factor authorization purposes, for obvious security reasons.. Those of you who are managing to do this are lucky so far it would seem..?

At the end of the day we noticed that the MySSA login box had changed, whereby there’s an option to login using ‘ID.me’.

You need to watch out for a link in the ID.me process that says “I no longer live in the US” then follow the steps from there on…

This is an independent US identity verification service, which needs to see things like your passport, driving license, recent bank statement, social security card. You then need to provide a ‘Selfie’ picture to compare against your passport photo.  You are then interviewed over a video link where the interviewer can decide you are who you say you are. 

Once all the checks are processed OK, you can then login to the social security ‘My Social Security’ account via a ID.me login box, together with an iPad ID.me authentication App, which generates an access code on your iPad that you use instead of a code that has to be sent via text or email. It sounds complicated, but once processed with ID.me, subsequent logins are relatively simple.

Although the postal address and phone number we provided to ID.me are our UK address and UK phone number, no where during the login process were we asked for these.

This ID.me service was FREE for accessing social security accounts.

The first thing we did when we managed to login into her MySSA account was disable any texting to the old US phone number.

Phew.. It was a task but we got there in the end.

Well done - congratulations.

Thanks for the write-up of all the steps you took to get there.

When we log on it uses our email address to send a verification code. When we first created the account in the USA we did have a US cell phone before we moved. After a year or 2 there must have been plenty complaints from folks who don't have cell phones because they switched to email verification when logging in.

We’ve just had an email notification from Wells Fargo that we have to close our joint bank account with them, (within 60 days), as we are no longer resident in the US and currently have a UK address on our account which is now our primary residence.

I’m wondering if this is the same with all banks in the US now..?

This leads me to ponder one or two questions..

(1)
Is it possible, on the IRS tax form, (possibly using Turbo Tax), to enter a UK bank account number and sort code, (or possibly an IBAN number), instead of a US account number and Routing number..? If they want to take funds from us, or pay us back a refund, can they do this through a UK bank account..?

(2)
My wife will be eligible, in 2022 to apply for her US SS pension. We assume she will be able to get her pension paid into our UK bank account, albeit a difference in currency..?  We were intending to have her pension paid into the US WF account, and pull the funds over when needed.

Is there any other considerations we might need to take into account..?

We’ve just had an email notification from Wells Fargo that we have to close our joint bank account with them, (within 60 days), as we are no longer resident in the US and currently have a UK address on our account which is now our primary residence.

I’m wondering if this is the same with all banks in the US now..?

This leads me to ponder one or two questions..

(1)
Is it possible, on the IRS tax form, (possibly using Turbo Tax), to enter a UK bank account number and sort code, (or possibly an IBAN number), instead of a US account number and Routing number..? If they want to take funds from us, or pay us back a refund, can they do this through a UK bank account..?

(2)
My wife will be eligible, in 2022 to apply for her US SS pension. We assume she will be able to get her pension paid into our UK bank account, albeit a difference in currency..?  We were intending to have her pension paid into the US WF account, and pull the funds over when needed.

Is there any other considerations we might need to take into account..?

It's concerning to hear that WF are to close your account. A couple of thoughts:

Can you change your address back to one that is Stateside? Keeping a U.K. 'Mailing Address'? Off subject, but many IRA Custodians wont allow contributions with a non U.S. address. But if you change to a U.S. address, make the contribution and then later revert to your U.K address, all works fine. All ok with the IRS, providing you contribute from none FEIE - its the custodians rules, as it's the banking rules to close you down.

Not sure if the bank account closures are systemic, but I know that I have become rather resourceful to use mobile deposit, where as before no problem.

1, No, check or U.S. account.
2,Yes, no problem having SS paid into your Brit Sterling account.

As a banking alternative (I see you're a USC) https://www.sdfcu.org/ will open accounts with an overseas address. You need to be a member of the ACA or American Consumer Council. A prerequisite is a savings account with them too, so another addition to SA, but likely worth it. I don't no anyone with an account and can't speak from experience myself. Wise is another option that many on here use, but be mindful that deposits are not insured as they are with https://www.sdfcu.org/. Being totally online, no check books are issued with Wise, (should that be important for new  'voided checks'

I agree with Barcrest on your questions, and a Wise borderless account with US routing number and bank account should work for receiving refunds from the IRS, or paying monies owed.

My wife is now receiving her SS directly into her bank account so that definitely works very well.

This WISE account sounds promising..

Can you open a Joint WISE account in both my wife’s and my name..?

This WISE account sounds promising..

Can you open a Joint WISE account in both my wife’s and my name..?

I don’t know.

You can always inquire directly with them

https://wise.com/help/articles/2897226/what-is-a-wise-account

Closing WF problems.

Security gone mad…!!!

The Wells Fargo bank’s security system is tying itself in knots.

I opened a WISE account, with a US Account number and Routing number.and tried to setup new recipient within WF with WISE’s credentials.

WF successfully managed to ‘Ping’ the new WISE account with a couple of small trial payments, which it managed to do and then pull back.

So I thought I’d try a small $20 transfer from WF to WISE, only to be told WF couldn’t do it and to phone them at WF.

When I did eventually get through on the phone, I was informed that because the automatic system couldn’t contact me by phone, to acknowledge it was me mailing the transfer, it couldn’t do it, and this is what caused to halt.

The reason they don’t have my phone number on their records is because I no-longer have a US phone number, and WF aren’t geared up to accept a UK phone number.  (Sounds familiar..!!). We’ve been through this movie before with other US departments etc.

Even though I was talking to them on the phone and had confirmed my ID, they still said they couldn’t move the funds to this account, because it was ‘an online account’, even after successfully managing to ping the account earlier.

When we asked how are we supposed to retrieve our US$’s from our account while you’re pushing us to close the account and you’re not letting us move the funds, they suggested that old cliche’ .. “We’ll put a cheque in the post” .. !!

Like hell I said, I’ll use my tried and test USFOREX to pull out my WF funds down to zero and drop the money into my UK Lloyds account.

I just hope the IRS don’t have any difficulties pushing refunds int this US WISE account, should we be entitled to a refund..?? 🤔