U.S. Expatriate Tax Return Preparation


We have been helping American expatriates reduce or eliminate U.S. tax bills, comply with IRS tax filing requirements and avoid unnecessary tax audits or penalties for over 20 years. We offer all services related to expatriate tax - from advice on tax planning to the practicalities of fighting the IRS to reduce your back taxes.

Menu on the left side of the page shows links to pages that explain in greater detail various services we offer. Below we will outline our standard services and their fees.

Standard expatriate tax services

  • US Federal Tax Return Preparation - Our expert tax preparers have over 20 years experience with expatriate returns. Cost: $349 including all schedules and forms (up to 3 brokerage transactions). If you Gross Income is above $100,000 the cost is $449.

  • State Tax Return - We will advise you if you need to file a state return (depends on which state you most recently resided in) and can prepare the return if one is required. Most expats do not require to file a State return and we often find a way to stop filing ?difficult? states such as California. Cost: $99 (also all inclusive).

  • Mini Phone Consultation - If you have a specific tax question that you would like to discuss with an experienced Tax Professional, you can use our Mini Consultation service. The cost is $200 for 30 minutes of Ms. Zemelman's professional advice or $150 for a written consultation by email.

Have you fallen behind on your U.S. taxes? Need to catch up?

You're not alone! One of our tax service specialties is helping customers who are delinquent get on the good side of the IRS. We have extensive experience helping expats get compliant with the government and know exactly the best ways to navigate this process.

For customers who need to catch up on their US expat taxes and need to file multiple (3+) years at a time, we offer a 20% discount.

Did You Receive an IRS Notice?

Worry not! We also provide US compliance services for US delinquent taxpayers enabling them to get back in the US tax system.

Taxes for Expats has answered IRS notices of all degrees of complexity, taking a holistic approach to tax liabilities. We can provide advice concerning a response to an IRS notice, reviewing your position, checking IRS calculations, and preparing a considered response, addressing the issues and minimizing your costs.

Check My Return

Very often when get a new client and check his or her past returns we find numerous errors - almost always made against the client's interests. This happens when a client self-prepared or the return was performed by tax preparers unfamiliar with the complexities of expatriate taxation. This happens so frequently that we established a service specifically to deal with this - called Check My Return.

We are happy to review your last three years tax returns for amendment opportunities and likely refunds. The service costs $25 per year. If we find any errors, the fee would be applied towards the cost of preparing an amended return (which would likely save you hundreds, if not thousands). You are welcome to use it even if you are happy with your current tax preparer. After all, a second opinion can only be beneficial!

We also assist American expatriates in the following complex tax areas:
  • Alternative minimum tax foreign tax credit
  • Due dates of tax returns and payments
  • Exchange rate conversions
  • Exemption and dependency allowances
  • Foreign earned income exclusion
    • defining what is foreign earned income
    • qualifying for the exclusion
    • treatment of housing costs
    • meeting the bona fide or physical residence test
    • filing within the deadline to qualify for the exclusion
  • Foreign tax credit
    • How to qualify
    • Calculating the credit
    • Carry-backs and carry-forwards of the credit
  • Non-resident alien married to U.S. citizen
  • Reporting depreciation
  • Reporting foreign financial accounts
  • Tax treaties with foreign countries
  • Totalization agreements
  • Tax treatment of
    • Contributions to foreign charitable organizations
    • Military personnel
    • Ministers serving abroad
    • Moving expenses
    • Social security pension
    • Students studying abroad
  • Transferring property to a foreign trust
  • Treatment of controlled foreign corporations
  • Treaty-based return position disclosure
  • W-9 vs. W-8BEN filing requirements
  • Withholding rules on global investors of U.S. securities