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US Tax Help

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Hi

I moved over to the US from the UK on a CR1 visa back in May, All is good and have a job....Now its tax season and we are both stuck with how to file our taxes, do I have to declare what I earned in the UK which is a really small amount or do i just file with what we have on the w2

any help would be fantastic and im really not bothered about getting extra money i just want these taxes settled quickly and easily

david

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Yes you have to declare what you earned in the UK HOWEVER read the foreign earned income exemption guidelines and note that you can subtract about 6 months (approximately - due to "physical presence test") or 50% of about $94,000 as exempted from US taxes due to foreign earned income. The link is

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97324,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p54/ch04.html

In short, declare it - then exempt it - dont forget to start your physical presence overseas at 330 days before you arrived in the US which gives you 35 days of presence for the year in the US to use to calculate the percent of income you can exclude.

It sounds confusing. BUT: Use Turbotax and it will guide you through the process

Hope that helps

Hi

I moved over to the US from the UK on a CR1 visa back in May, All is good and have a job....Now its tax season and we are both stuck with how to file our taxes, do I have to declare what I earned in the UK which is a really small amount or do i just file with what we have on the w2

any help would be fantastic and im really not bothered about getting extra money i just want these taxes settled quickly and easily

david

 

i don't get it.

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I started with Turbo Tax but its the free one i think im going to take the plunge and buy the basic version, i know that the money is nowhere near the limits but i shall take a few hours this week sit down with all the paper and get these things sorted :)

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Yeah unfortunately its like 30 bucks or so but it gets everything sorted out for you without having to did through all the forms and requirements. The first year my wife was in the US we filed married/jointly for the previous year (she arrived in Jan but it was way, way better for us to file that way even though she never was in the US for the tax year), declared her income, subtracted it, and for us it was beneficial vs. filing head of household (which you CAN do if you have another dependent in your home and your spouse is non-residen alien).

You guys are stuck with the married / jointly because you are already here and the only reason you would even go to all that trouble is to just get all the books right for that first year.....

I used a common currency conversion site and coverted the currency on monthly average based on month received / then saved the basis used in case of the odd or rare chance we would be audited.

Best of luck

I started with Turbo Tax but its the free one i think im going to take the plunge and buy the basic version, i know that the money is nowhere near the limits but i shall take a few hours this week sit down with all the paper and get these things sorted :)

 

i don't get it.

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Australia
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I moved over to the US from the UK on a CR1 visa back in May, All is good and have a job....Now its tax season and we are both stuck with how to file our taxes, do I have to declare what I earned in the UK which is a really small amount or do i just file with what we have on the w2

any help would be fantastic and im really not bothered about getting extra money i just want these taxes settled quickly and easily

For your very first taxes i would go to a tax agent like H&R block.

My husband and I just filed. We did a normal 1040, we have a house now, 2 w2s, and something for his retirement. All those cost us $170. It wasn't cheap but we know it was right and we got a refund. I could do the easy stuff, but not what we needed last year or this year. It's worth it to me to make sure it's right.

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Filed: AOS (apr) Country: Netherlands
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Ok so I did the income part, but i still have a uk bank account does this need to be included and where does it go?

Is it over the limit that forces you to report it? ($10,000, I think.) If so, there is a form to send somewhere different. This is normally for reporting offshore tax haven bank accounts, but we get caught up in it.

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