i immigrated to USA and a few years later toke the citizenship and return to my home country for a few years now but a friend still living in USA told me that I still have to file tax return even if I left USA so my question is is it required to file USA tax return after leaving the USA for a few years now while I still live outside of USA and not have plans to return any time soon?
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is it required to file USA tax return after leaving USA for a few years?
- Thread starter ramsar
- Start date
A US citizen is subject to US taxes on their worldwide income no matter where they live. You may be able to use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and/or the Foreign Tax Credit to reduce the actual amount of taxes you need to pay to the US, but you still need to report your foreign income on your tax return in order to claim the exclusion and/or credit on that income. Also, you will need to report to FBAR in any year that you have more than $10000 in foreign bank accounts.
Thank you for replyA US citizen is subject to US taxes on their worldwide income no matter where they live. You may be able to use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and/or the Foreign Tax Credit to reduce the actual amount of taxes you need to pay to the US, but you still need to report your foreign income on your tax return in order to claim the exclusion and/or credit on that income. Also, you will need to report to FBAR in any year that you have more than $10000 in foreign bank accounts.
but I don't receive any money from USA, I live only on the pension that I get from my original country, do i still have to file tax return?
what about the past years I didn't file tax return since I left USA? will there be any financial penalties?
Like I said, it doesn't make a difference if income is from the US or another country -- you are taxed by the US on your worldwide income. There is a certain threshold of income (again, that's worldwide income) below which you are not required to file a tax return, because you wouldn't have any tax at that income anyway. You can read the section "Do You Have To File?" in 1040 instructions to see the exact conditions for needing to file. If it turns out that you don't owe any tax, then I believe there are no penalties. If you do owe tax for past years whose tax deadlines are already past, then you need to pay that tax plus interest.