Hey everyone, thought I’d consult Reddit about filing my US taxes this year. As all American expats know, we have to file our incomes even if we don’t live in the states anymore (it really blows). Typically I hire my tax guy in America to do it for me (runs me about $200). Now that the yen is valued significantly lower compared to the dollar, and since I don’t get any income tax returns, I decided to try and file my own taxes this year to save money. I’ve researched it a bit online and I’ve seen mention of IRS forms 2225 and 1116. Have any Americans out there filed their own taxes? If so, I’d really appreciate any pointers or tips. I don’t earn enough money to have to pay any US taxes, I just need to submit my income details. Thanks!
8 comments
https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/wiki/index/countries/us/how-to-file-a-tax-return might help you get started.
I just use taxact and don’t overthink it.
Did you make less than $120,000 in 2022? Were you present in Japan for more than 330 days in 2022? Are you going to file as “Single” or “Married Filing Separately?” Do you not have kids? Do you not want to contribute to a US based IRA? Then follow the 2022 [Kumomoto JET Tax Guide](https://www.kumamotojet.com/reiwa/u-s-tax-guide/) for 2nd to 5th year (it doesn’t matter if you’re not actually on the JET Programme) and fill out all of those forms, following the line-by-line instructions, using [Free File Fillable Forms](https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms). This method is the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE).
If you have kids who have SSNs and want to claim the child tax credit, or if you want to contribute to an IRA, use the Foreign Tax Credit (FTC). You can still use Free File Fillable Forms, but you’ll have to do research into how to fill out the forms and what numbers in your Japanese tax statement are used. You’ll need 1040, 1116, and Schedule 3 at a minimum, then 8812 for the child tax credit, and schedule B if you earned interest in a US account.
i just learned about [https://expatonline.hrblock.com/](https://expatonline.hrblock.com/) and im going to do it there…in progress but so far so good. I need to file my stocks, house sale in USA and my w2 for the year 2022. lets see
I did it with the IRS e-file system last year and it was great. All the forms you need are there and they are interlinked so any income/expense etc. you put on one form automatically is input in other forms where needed.
(I used my tax return from an ExpatTax that I paid for the previous year and just changed the numbers to last year’s earning. I’m under the limit so it was really easy. I was done in… two hours? And that was my first time to use it. So, this year it should take…. two hours? ha)
Copied and pasted from previous thread:
If you are low income it is a piece of cake to do yourself!
I do it myself every year with my sloppy as hell multicolor high lightered handwritten translation of the 源泉徴収票 (gensen choshu hyo) into USD and THREE relevant tax forms (1040, 1040 schedule 1 and 2555).
Then you slap the IRS Austin, Texas address (which receives expat taxes) on an envelope and you do not give those money hungry thieving accounts who prey on idiots living abroad a dime. 😎✌️
P.s.
you can use Google and find many existing reddits about this already.
I used to use turbotax until they stopped doing free file, now I use taxslayer.com. If your annual income is within the exemption and you don’t have any other complicated deductions you should be able to do free file because you effectively have no taxable income.
Do it yourself. I started doing that a couple years ago and now I never pay for it to be done. Saves a lot of money but it is a little pain in the ass