Common Mistakes

Consumer tax software files clean, confident returns — and silently omits the international forms it was never built for. Why a smooth e-file proves little.

The exclusion looks like the obvious move abroad. Why the FEIE-vs-credit choice is a real decision — and why undoing it is harder than making it.

A gift from foreign parents usually isn't taxable in the US. It can still require a disclosure — and the penalty for skipping it is sized to the gift.

How the Substantial Presence Test pulls cross-border visitors into US tax residency by counting days they thought didn't count.

The most expensive return most expats ever file is the first one after moving — because it looks routine, gets filed routinely, and sets everything after it.

Update your address abroad and your US brokerage may restrict the account. Use a relative's address instead and you've built evidence against yourself.

The income exclusion wipes out a freelancer's US income tax — and leaves self-employment tax standing. The gap, and the certificate that actually closes it.

A foreign mutual fund is usually a PFIC. That triggers Form 8621, punitive default tax, and an audit window that never closes. What to know.

The $10,000 FBAR trigger adds up across every foreign account — dormant ones, tiny ones, and joint accounts with a non-US spouse. What people miss.

You can owe $0 in US tax and still face five-figure penalties. Why Americans abroad must file even with no tax due — and how to fix it if you haven't.

Buried in Schedule B is a yes/no question about foreign accounts. Answer it wrong and the IRS can use that checkbox as evidence of willfulness. Here's how.

Your bank's "tax-free" account label is a domestic promise. US tax law doesn't read it. How Canadian registered accounts are actually treated.

The US-Canada tax treaty doesn't apply itself. Most of its protections must be claimed on a return — and some things you assume it covers, it never touches.

A skilled domestic tax preparer can still miss a cross-border life. The questions a US-only preparer never asks — and why those misses compound.

Every cheap path back into compliance shares one condition: you moved before the IRS did. Why waiting is a decision, and what the first letter forecloses.