Hi,

I've been teaching English over seas for the past 4 years. I never knew you had to file taxes when working over seas, especially when you're making between $400-$1000 a month. I'm about to file direct consulate filing from China where I'm currently working with my husband who's also not a chinese citizen. Now what do I do about the 3 years of Taxes they want. I have a joint sponsor and they have all their tax forms. It's only me who some how had no idea I had to pay taxes to the States when working abroad and making so little a month. Has anyone ever had a situation like this. Anyway I could file them late from here? I know these are crazy questions, I just honestly had no idea, even of how to file taxes from here. I've worked in 2 different countries, maybe 3 in the past 4 years but I didn't make much at all. How do I explain the fact that I had no idea I was suppose to pay taxes or even how to file from overseas? What should I do about my tax forms. Also, we were officially married in Turkey, by a court that spoke Turkish, while a friend interpreted. Neither one of us, knew Turkish and so some how they made some serious mistakes on our wedding certificate. First they put the wrong date for my husbands birthday. Also they put the wrong parents for my parents. Some how they put my husbands parents for both my parents and his so that it looks like we are brother in sister. Totally crazy! But some how I never noticed. Well there's obvious evidence we are not brother and sister through our birth certificates and infact we are from two totally different contries. When calling the wedding court in Istanbul to fix it they say we must both show up in person for them to change it. It's not possible now, since I have a one year old son and am pregnant. What should we do about this issue. We did another wedding in Nigeria, to have records in English about a year after our first wedding. Can we use the Nigerian wedding cert. even though it's obvious that that's not when we were first officially married by my passport and the name change. Frustrated by these issues and need help. Can anyone offer advice. Some how we were so happy getting married we never noticed the mistakes till we left Turkey two months after our wedding. Plus the infor was in Turkish and we just didn't pay attention. Thanks in advance for you help.

Wow, you do have a few little problems to deal with!!

Firstly, the taxes. I will assume that you have paid taxes in the countries where you have been living. Given that your income was low, you will not suffer a tax liability in the US, because there is a thing called Foreign Tax Credit. There are some IRS publications pertaining to US citizens living and working overseas that you should read (I'm afraid that I don't recall the numbers, but you should be able to search at www.irs.gov). You won't pay taxes here in the USA, but you should file the tax forms.

Regarding your Turkish marriage certificate, is there any chance that there is a Turkish embassy where you are currently living, where you could go for advice?

Best of luck,

G

harvestgal,

Check the IRS web site and Form 1040 instructions - there's a minimum income level below which one is not required to file an income tax return.

Sounds like you could benefit by having a consultation with a US immigration attorney. Aside from the marriage certificate issue you may possibly have a domicile issue, and who knows what other issues remain to be uncovered.

Yodrak

Thanks for you advice and information. Does anyone know where I can find a good US lawyer that I can consult with from here? China?
Maybe online or over the phone?