Accidental American who never filed US taxes — can I handle this myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: the route depends on whether the failure was non-willful and where you live.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
I was born in the US but left as a baby — do I have to file?
Almost certainly yes. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, and citizenship acquired at birth is not lost by leaving, by never returning, or by holding another passport. The filing obligation exists even where no tax ends up being owed, which is the usual outcome for someone earning an ordinary salary abroad and paying tax on it at home. Information reporting on foreign bank and investment accounts runs alongside the returns and is often the larger exposure, because the penalties there are not tied to how much tax was owed.
What happens if I just file a few back years myself?
This is the most expensive mistake available in this situation, and it is easy to make. The catch-up programmes were written for people who did not know, and they have conditions about how the filing is made. Sending in ordinary late returns first can put you outside the route you would otherwise have qualified for, because the relief is claimed by filing in a particular way and in a particular order. Once that has happened it cannot always be undone. Establish which route you qualify for, then file into it — not the other way round.
What does non-willful mean and how would I show it?
Broadly, that the failure to file came from not knowing, from a misunderstanding, or from negligence, rather than from a deliberate decision to conceal. It is judged on your whole history and not on a single document. What supports it is ordinary and specific: when you left the United States and how old you were, what you were told and by whom, how your accounts were opened and in whose name, and what you did once you learnt of the obligation. The statement that carries this is written narrative rather than tick-boxes, and it is the part of the submission that most rewards care.
Does living outside the United States change which catch-up route I can use?
Yes, and it is one of the first things to establish. The catch-up routes distinguish between people living abroad and people living in the United States, and the conditions, the number of back years and the penalty consequences are not the same. Residence is tested on physical presence and on where your home is, not on where your passport was issued. Getting the classification right at the outset determines the whole shape of the submission, because the years to be prepared and the reports to be filed follow from it.
I have never had a US social security number — where do I start?
With the number, because the returns cannot be processed without a taxpayer identifier, and obtaining one takes time that should run in parallel with the rest. You will need evidence of the birth and of your identity, and the application route depends on where you live now. While that is under way the substantive work can begin: establishing which catch-up route applies, identifying the years and the accounts involved, and gathering the foreign income records. Starting the identifier application late is the most common reason these submissions sit unfinished for months.
Will catching up mean I owe US tax on my ordinary foreign salary?
Often not, but it has to be worked out rather than assumed. The system allows relief for tax already paid to the country you live in, and a separate relief for earned income from working abroad, and between them an ordinary salary taxed at home frequently produces little or nothing owing in the United States. What disturbs that result is usually not salary: investments, a business you control, a pension arrangement, or the sale of a home can all be treated differently than you would expect. That is why the years are prepared before any conclusion about liability is offered.
I have never filed US taxes and did not know I had to. Where does that leave me?
In a position that has a defined route out, which is the important part. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, so the obligation existed whether or not anyone told you about it. Where the failure was genuinely not wilful, the streamlined procedures exist to bring several years of taxes and information returns current at once, and in many cases the tax finally payable is small because foreign tax credits and the earned-income exclusion do most of the work. What creates real exposure is the unfiled information returns, not usually the tax.
What is a "dual-status alien spouse", and why is my software asking?
The question comes from the filing-status screens, and it is asking whether your spouse was a non-resident or part-year resident for the year — because if they were, a joint return is not available by default. An election exists to treat a non-resident spouse as a resident for the whole year, which unlocks joint filing at the price of bringing their worldwide income into the US return and their accounts into its reporting. See a US person with a non-resident spouse.
