The exemption only applies to earned income, meaning you cannot apply any of that $125k to stuff like investment returns, dividends, royalties, or rents collected.
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
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That's right.
The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion specifically applies to earned income, and does not apply to unearned income.
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If you were employed by a foreign company that has no presence in the US how exactly would the IRS know whether you've earning more than $125k?
Because money keeps getting deposited in your bank account every two weeks and you're not reporting any income.
Banks hand all of that information over.
Maybe I'm not understanding what you mean, but if someone works and lives abroad for 330 days of the year they'll likely have a bank account established within that country so that they don't have to deal with all of their daily financial activities being international transactions.
There is a system whereby foreign banks are obligated to report accounts held by Americans to the US for "anti terrorism" purposes.
And as a us citizen you are also obligated to report all of your foreign accounts in a FBAR filing each year.
There is a system whereby foreign banks are obligated to report accounts held by Americans to the US for “anti terrorism” purposes.
Could you give me a name, or at least some link to a government website that describes the system you're talking about?
https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/countries/global-network.html
I am sure there are better sources than this, but I am going by what I was told by the bank when I opened an account here in Japan. And maybe it does not only apply to Americans, but I was told at the bank that I had to fill out additional anti-terror related paperwork with US details specifically because of US citizenship.
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Honor system
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Yeah, it goes up faster than inflating each year, it seems. 126,400 per person or 253k for married I believe this year, which is a pretty fair bit especially considering you deduct the taxes you locally pay off the top first, afaik
"considering you deduct the taxes you locally pay off the top first"
i understood local taxation to be inclusive to the FEIE, can i see your source?
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/foreign-tax-credit.asp
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1116.pdf
I thought it was a Form 1116 thing, but I could be wrong for sure. IANAL and haven't yet done foreign taxes so who knows yet
oh i see. thanks.
yea, the 1116 is for people paying formal taxes to the foreign government directly, usually because you're living there as a permanent resident or operating a business full-time and significantly, have established your permanent tax home in that other country.
using the 1116, you don't pay all of the taxes twice, although you still pay some of them twice because the US wants that cash.
the FEIE, form 2555, means that your tax is still in the US and only requires that you're not in the US for 330 days out of the year to exempt income tax on up to 125k of income earned while outside of the country.
the feie does have a residency test as well, but the physical presence qualification of 330 days each year is simpler and requires much less trouble to set up initially (permanent residency, switching tax homes, work permits and all that) to qualify for, so I only deal with the physical presence test.
Gotcha, okay. So you could do it either way, but for most people ($125k and below per person) it's probably just better to use the feie it seems
This is great, thanks for sharing all this.
exactly, the feie makes tax mitigation way simpler for most full-time travelers at most income levels.
you're welcome, I love it when people find this stuff useful!
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