If you live abroad, most of your US bill is settled long before April. Whether you claim the exclusion or the foreign tax credit, when you take income, when you move and what you invest in all set the number, and by the time you file it's too late to change any of them. We help you make those calls while they still count.
There aren't many of them, and most people only hear about them once the chance has gone. These are the ones we go through with you.
The foreign earned income exclusion (Form 2555) takes up to $130,000 of 2025 earnings off your US return. The foreign tax credit (Form 1116) offsets US tax with the tax you paid locally. In a high-tax country the credit usually wins, and any excess carries forward; in a low-tax one the exclusion often does. We run both on your real numbers, sometimes the answer is a mix, and we settle it before the year is locked in.
The date you exercise options, take a bonus, sell shares or move can change what you owe. If you’re relying on the physical presence test, you need 330 full days abroad in a 12-month window, and one badly timed trip home can cost you the exclusion. We plan the calendar around that, and around the residency rules in your new country.
Most foreign mutual funds and ETFs are PFICs as far as the IRS is concerned, and some non-US pensions raise the same question. They’re taxed harshly and reported fund by fund on Form 8621, so we’d rather tell you before you buy. We also look at how your US and local retirement accounts fit together, so contributions still work in your favor.
The exclusion doesn’t touch self-employment tax, which catches a lot of freelancers out. A totalization agreement might, depending on the country. We also check whether an entity or an election would actually lower the bill, or just hand you a Form 5471 every year for no real saving.
A cheap local index fund, including one held inside a UK ISA, is usually a Passive Foreign Investment Company to the IRS. Gains can be taxed at the top ordinary rate plus an interest charge, and every fund needs its own Form 8621 each year. We'd much rather catch that before you invest than at filing time.
A mid-year move can mean a dual-status return, or a state that still thinks you live there. Picking the date carefully changes the bill.
RSUs vesting, options you're thinking of exercising, a business sale, or a large gain that two countries both want to tax.
Self-employment tax, whether a totalization agreement covers you, and whether your income should run through an entity at all.
A short intake: where you live, how you're paid, any equity or foreign accounts, and anything big you can see coming, like a move, a vest or a sale.
An enrolled agent puts the exclusion and the credit side by side, tests the move dates and projects your estimated tax. You see the trade-offs in dollars, not in generalities.
What to claim, when to take income, what not to buy and what to pay each quarter, each with a date. Planning time is $200 / hr, credited if you file with us.
When the year closes, the people who planned it prepare your 1040. Nobody has to relearn your situation or guess why a choice was made.
Most tax prep happens once nothing can change. The savings are in timing and elections, and in what you decide not to do, and all of that has to happen during the year.
Treaty positions, totalization, PFICs and dual-status years are routine work for us. We’re not researching them for the first time on your bill.
Strategy and the 1040 come from the same enrolled agents, so what we agree during the year is what gets filed.