So I had my first go at sorting my wifes tax return.

Got the 1040 and 2555 and was off.

Claiming the housing exclusion and foreign income exclusion.

For some reason I can't get it sorted.

Best to leave it and try again fresh tomorrow I suppose. Did anyone else have problems first time around?

I did the UK taxes easily enough but I'm missing something here.

Any experts in the Zug area fancy meeting for a beer on me in exchange for guidance Boo Fricken Hoo

Deeeep breaths

My US tax return was 33 pages long this year. Theres no way I have the time or patience to complete it myself! I get some dude in the UK to do it for me for a couple of hundred quid (bit of a rip off, as it seems to take him 15 minutes, but I guess he has the software for it).

But its worth it to me to spare my sanity.....

33 pages long???

WTF!!

Jeez, I'm hoping to get away with just two forms lol. Do you have investments etc?

I would suggest reading IRS Publication 54, it explains most everything.

If this is the first year abroad, if partial year, the important thing is to make sure she qualifies for the foreign income/housing exclusion/deduction by either the physical presence test or bona fide residence test, then it is just like filling out the normal paperwork. That is assuming there is nothing too difficult like owning business or being self employed, etc.

Still struggling with the tax form, eh?

When I lived in the UK I used to be able to get away with the 2-form tax return. Now, I still have my house in the UK with rental income, and am working as a contractor here so have lots of write-offs with regards to expenses etc.... not really sure of the details, just glad I don't have to do it myself!!
And somehow my guy manages to get me an 'economic stimulus' payment every year. 300 bucks last year, over 100 bucks this year. Not bad!

Maybe I just need to have another read through etc.

Having another stab today.

Just getting a bit confused

Anyone uses an accountant CPA in CH for filing the US tax return? Any recommendations?

I am happy the standard deduction still outweighs any itemizing I would do...for now. Living a nomadic life holds certain benefits for tax time, I guess.

I filled mine out on Taxact.com and the only real holdup was getting my company's Tax ID number. (which I hope was correct!)

I was going to go about filling in moving expense deductions for the first year, but aside from a vacation in the States in the summer, I have been here all year so I just did the foreign income exclusion and my taxes turned to $0. Once they were $0, I decided not to bother with things that might just get me in trouble. Best to keep it simple!

I printed them and all it cost me was the 3.50CHF stamp to mail it to Texas.

I think I've completed it but it seems wrong..too much in my favour.

For Q 61 on the 1040. See below. Do I put the total tax I have paid on my full earnings for the year? Bearing in mind I have deductions from the foreign income exclusion and housing exclusion thing which has reduced the taxable amount. If I do put my tax paid, do I have to work out the tax paid on the new reduced taxable amount?


61 Federal income tax withheld from Forms W-2 and 1099 .

Do you have any Swiss income and do you pay Swiss taxes? I know that last year we did the income exclusion, and then we pro-rated the Swiss taxes for the tax credit based on the reduced income.

Yes we have 100% swiss income. We will be paying Swiss taxes, when the stuff gets here.
So when you had the reduced figure that the USA will tax you on, you calculated the related amount of tax you already paid for that figure

Yes, that's right. There two forms that we used in addition to the 1040 and schedule a and so on. One is the 2555 and the other is the 11something....we had to have them both. Since you reduce your income, you can only get a credit for taxes that you've paid on the remaining income.

The thing that threw me off at first was that if you itemize deductions, you end up counting some of the same ones in both ch and us. A lot of my deductions, school for example, are only valid in the US, but some stuff was valid both places.

I would download a copy of taxact. It was really helpful with all of this stuff.

Im not taking any extra deductions, only the foreign tax and housing deduction. Not the credit. So no other forms needed i think

So only used the 1040 and trhe 2555

makes sense. good luck! I'm always late with ours. Oh well.

Well I did both on Taxact and on my own.
Apparently I'm owed a fair sum and thats where I am worried. Did I do something wrong

Time for the double checking tomorrow.

Do'h I need to fill in the F116 for Foreign Tax Credit.

"Election To Claim the Foreign Tax Credit Without Filing Form 1116
"You may be able to, claim the foreign tax credit without filing Form lll6. By making this election, the foreign tax credit limitation (lines 14 through 20 of the form) will not apply to you.This election is available only if you meet all of the following conditions:
• All of your foreign source gross income was 'passive category income' (which includes most interest and dividends) (see page 3 [of Instructions for Form 1116]). However, for this purpose, passive income also includes (a) income subject to the special rule for high-taxed income described on page 3, and (b) certain export financing interest.
• All the income and any foreign taxes paid on it were reported to you on a qualified payee statement. Qualified payee statements include Form 1099-DIV1 Form 1099-INT, Schedule K-1 (Form 1041), Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) Schedule K-1 (Form 1065-B) Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S), or similar substitute statements.
• Your total creditable foreign taxes are not more than $300 ($600 if married filing a joint return)."

It is sometimes more advantageous to take a deduction for foreign taxes than a credit. Not common, but it happens, especially when the Swiss tax is based on imputed income rather than real cash income. And when the characterization of the tax may differ as between the two tax systems. Wealth tax is not creditable with Form 1116: Rev. Rul. 70-464 (Swiss wealth tax) citing Lynch v. Turrish, 247 U.S. 221 (1918).

Hi,

Check out the due dates for US citizens or resident aliens living abroad - you are automatically given a 2 month extension if you don't have tax due. Extensions are allowed with the filing of form 4868.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=97324,00.html

Hopefully this will reduce the stress.