Remember your US Income Tax extension request is ONLY for additional TIME to FILE your tax forms, your income tax payments, estimated or otherwise, are still due April 18th 2016.

Most US Taxpayers forget that income tax payments are due in April, even if an extension request for more time to file the forms has been accepted.  Resist the urge to bury your head in the sand, penalties quickly add up. Read More

Ordinarily, the United States taxes U.S. citizens and resident aliens on their worldwide income, even when they live and work abroad for an extended period of time. To provide some relief, a U.S. citizen or resident who meets certain requirements can elect to exclude from U.S. taxation a limited amount of foreign earned income plus a housing cost amount. A double tax benefit is not allowed, however, and a taxpayer cannot claim a credit for foreign income taxes related to excluded income.

1. Exclusion versus Credit

Because the foreign earned income exclusion is elective, an expatriate must decide whether to elect the exclusion or to rely on the foreign tax credit. A key factor in deciding which option is most advantageous is the relative amounts of U.S. and foreign taxes Read More