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Expat tax estimation with excel1040 and/or Streamlined with previously filed FBARs?

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309 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Bevdeforges  
E
Discussion starter
2 posts · ed 2025
Hello,

US expat in Fr w Fr citizenship.
I have realised I am very behind need to catch up on several years of US taxes and FBARS
I am looking for resources to calculate any tax I might owe (relatively sure I don't due to low salary and very little interest income, but now I am concerned).
Has anyone used the Glenn Reeves Excel 1040 to estimate expat taxes? Do you have any tips? I am a total beginner and trying to figure out how to enter the foreign income.

I am also looking for a firm to help with my streamlined filing but I think this may be complicated since ten years ago I worked with my late father's ants to catch up on filing and I see that that included FBARs (I don't have copies of the returns so I am unsure if it was streamlined). I have spoken to a few places and it's very hard to assess their level of competence for this kind of case and the fees vary greatly.
One company requires an almost 2K tax study before starting on streamlined, promising to tell me everything about my IRS file, but that seems quite expensive.

Has anyone done a second streamlined process (I had some complicated life events but not sure if this is enough to justify) and or had a steamlined request rejected?

Has anyone worked with a A on a tax review? What is a reasonable price ?
I have finally gotten on the IRS site and can pull 9 years of transcripts so I am not sure what more a A could get, but maybe they could tell me if that old filing was a streamlined?

Thanks for any advice you can offer
L
 
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Given the current mess (and that's the polite way of putting it) in the US government, I wouldn't worry too much about your US taxes - particularly if you are single and have, as you say, relatively little income or other financial resources. The IRS has never had enough staff to bother auditing expats where there is little prospect of big returns in back taxes, and now they're dumping half of their audit staff right in the midst of the US tax season.

How much did you owe on the 9 years' worth of tax returns you were able to from the IRS website? (You don't have to answer that publicly.) But if you didn't owe much or any taxes during that time, there's an excellent chance that no one will notice if you don't start filing again. First, take a look at the filing thresholds :

Check if you need to file a tax return | Internal Revenue Service

Find out if you have to file a federal income tax return and why it may pay you to file even if you don’t have to.
www.irs.gov www.irs.gov

Any tax preparer will charge you quite a bit, no matter what - simply because they need to assess their potential risk in taking on your case.

You may want to look at the IRS Free File program and try preparing your own tax forms for the current year (i.e. 2024). Based on how that turns out it may or may not wind up being worth your time and effort to file (especially if you owe $0). There is a screening tool to find the Free File partners that can handle overseas filers (usually just means they will handle a 2555 form to take the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion if you have salary income). Based on the results you get from pulling together your own filing online, you can then decide if it's worth it to bother filing at all.
 
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