 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news. IRS reminder to Americans Abroad. Let me guess, the IRS is like, hey, don't forget about your taxes while you're over there. We're still your silent partner, and we want some of your money. But in any case, we've got the IRS reminder to Americans Abroad, file 2021 return by June 15th. Eligible families can claim expanded tax benefits, but first, an attempt at a joke. When asked about the inflation problem, President Biden, returning from his vacation home, responded in a way reminiscent of an old English politician saying, crisis? What crisis? Oh yeah, that inflation thing? Well, as somebody who grew up in a home that struggled with money, although I must admit the money problems back then were not as pressing an issue as attempting to avoid being trampled by the wild herds of woolly mammoth, which ran free across the prairies at the time. Anyways, the point is I completely understand the average person's current problems, struggles, and desires, and I assure you that I spend every waking hour searching for solutions, although my waking hours aren't as numerous as they used to be, but I do have them. I'm half awake right now, for example, and here we are, half considering the problem. After careful consideration, I have found the solution to inflation. Everyone just needs to wear a mask, and I don't want to hear any flak about it. After all, it's for the good of the children, even though they are and never have been in any danger, statistically speaking, but I'm sure we can find a way to lie with those statistics. Anyway, so why do we need to wear masks then? Because wearing masks will assure that we don't pass on massive amounts of debt to those children. That's what the science says, and I don't want to hear any flak about it. I was told by the greatest scientist ever, himself, in a dream, Albert Einstein, who was wearing a dress at the time, making me impulsively lean into sniff his hair, which didn't smell quite right, but that's beside the point. He told me that wearing masks has a profound impact on the space-time continuum, resulting in debt being elongated like something close to the event horizon of a black hole, spaghettifying the debt, which I assume means we can then eat it. Solving at least two problems at one time. So don't give me any flak. Come on, man, wear your mask, people. I'm outta here. IR 2022-112, May 31st, 2022, Washington, the Internal Revenue Service today reminded taxpayers, living and working outside the United States that they must file their 2021 federal income tax return by Wednesday, June 15th. That's Wednesday, June 15th. This deadline applies to both U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad. There's a link to that here, including those with dual citizenship. Just as most taxpayers in the United States, the U.S. must timely file the returns with the IRS, those living and working in another country are also required to file an automatic two-month deadline extension until June 15th is normally granted for those overseas. Anyone who qualifies gets the extra time they don't need to ask for it. Well, that's nice. File to claim benefits. A taxpayer must file, even if they qualify for tax benefits, such as the foreign-earned income exclusion. There's a link to that here, or the foreign tax credit. There's a link to that here, so you can make sure that you get this all set up right as you're living abroad with the foreign-earned income exclusion and the foreign tax credit. So these benefits are not automatic and are only available if a U.S. citizen return is filed. This is true, even if these or other tax benefits substantially reduce or eliminate the U.S. tax liability. So in other words, you wanna make sure that you file the tax return so that you can properly claim any foreign-earned income exclusion on foreign tax credit. And that's kind of the way that you have to do it because you might have to elect for those things to be done. And if you don't file then you didn't make the election and that could cause you problems in the future and confuse the IRS. And you don't wanna confuse the IRS because if the IRS gets confused, then it causes problems. So in addition, the IRS urges families to check out expanded tax benefits such as the child tax credits, credit for other dependents and child and dependent care expenses and claim them if they qualify. Though taxpayers abroad often qualify, the calculation of these credits differs depending upon whether they lived in the United States for more than half of 2021 for more information. See the instructions to schedule 8812. There's a link to that here and the instructions for form 2441. Qualifying for the June 15th extension. A taxpayer qualifies for this special June 15th filing deadline if both their tax home and abode are outside the United States or Puerto Rico or they are serving in the military outside the US and Puerto Rico on the regular due date of their tax return. Be sure to attach a statement to the return indicating which of these two situations applies. Reporting required for foreign accounts and assets, federal law requires US citizens and resident aliens to report any worldwide income, including income from foreign trusts and foreign bank and security accounts. In most cases, affected taxpayers need to complete and attach Schedule B to their tax return. Part three of Schedule B, ask about the existence of foreign accounts such as bank and securities accounts and usually requires US citizens to report the country in which each account is located. In addition, certain taxpayers may also have to complete and attach their return form 8938 statement of foreign financial assets. There's a link to that here. Generally, US citizens, resident aliens and certain non-resident aliens must report specified foreign financial assets on this form if the aggregate value of those assets exceeds certain thresholds. See the instructions for this form for details. Treasury reporting requirements also apply to foreign accounts. A special reporting requirement applies to most people who have foreign bank or financial accounts, often referred to as the FBAR, the FBAR requirement. It is separate from and in addition to any reporting required on either Schedule B or form 8938. The FBAR FBAR requirement applies to anyone with an interest in or significant or other authority over foreign financial accounts whose aggregate value exceed $10,000 at any time during 2021. They must file electronically with the Treasury Department, a financial crimes enforcement network, the FIN CEN form 114 report a foreign bank and financial accounts, the FBAR, there's a link to that here. Because of this threshold, the IRS encourages taxpayers with foreign assets, even relatively small ones because you know that dollar amount isn't as big as it once was possibly. So to check if this filing requirement applies to them, the form is only available through the BSAE filing system website, there's a link to that website here. Tied to the regular tax filing due date, the deadline for filing the annual FBAR was generally April 18th, 2022. But FIN CEN is granting filers who missed the original deadline and automatic extension until October 17th, 2022, there is no need to request an extension. Report in US dollars. So we're talking the reporting format now, any income received or deductible expenses paid in foreign currency must be reported on US tax returns in US dollars. Otherwise, we don't know what you're talking about over here when you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to have one measuring tool, one measuring tool. Don't put the yardstick and the kilometer stick together or something, in any case. Likewise, any tax payment must be made in US dollars, both the FIN CEN form 114 and the IRS form 8938 require the use of a December 31st exchange rate for all transactions regardless of the actual exchange rate on the date of the transaction. So then of course we've got the thing of, well, when do I have to report the exchange date as of if I have to report it with your ruler, your measuring tool, your US dollars instead of what I got paid in because do I have to do it at the point in time I got paid it or do I have to do it as of a certain date or what's the, how do I make that conversion? So once again, both FIN CEN form 114 and IRS form 8938 require the use of a December 31st exchange rate for all transactions regardless of the actual exchange rate on the date of the transaction. So they kind of simplify it thusly. Generally, the IRS accepts any posted exchange rate that is used consistently for more information on exchange rates. You can see the form currency and currency exchange rates. There's a link to that here. Tax payments to ensure tax payments are credited promptly the IRS urges taxpayers to consider the speed and convenience of paying their US tax obligations electronically because the IRS likes getting their money fast like that, like a snap of a finger and they have their money. But it's also kind of convenient to on your end as well and it's nice to see that it went through didn't get lost in the mail or anything especially if you're shipping it overseas or something. So the fastest and easiest way to do that is via online account and IRS direct pay. These and other electronic payment options are available at pay online. There's a link to that here so you can check it out. Expatriate reporting, taxpayers who relinquished their US citizenship or ceased to be lawful, permanent residents of the United States during 2021 must file a dual status alien tax return. There's a link to that here and attached form 8854 initial and annual expatriation statement. There's a link to that here. A copy of form 8854 must also be filed with Internal Revenue Service 3651S IH35MS4301AUSC Austin, Texas and there's, you can check that out. There'll be a link to this you can take a look at that by the due date of the tax return, including extensions. See the instructions for this form and notice 209-85 guidance for expatriates under section 877A for further details. Extensions beyond June 15th. What if I need more time than that? What if I, that's not enough. Extra time is available for those who cannot meet the June 15th deadline. The IRS urges anyone needing the additional time to make their request electronically. Several electronic options are available. You can visit the irs.gov forward slash extensions for details. There's a link to that here. Otherwise, individual taxpayers can request a filing extension on to October 17th by filing form 4868 application for automatic extension of time to file U.S. individual income tax return, the extension form. Businesses that need more time must file form 704 application for automatic extension of time to file certain business income tax information and other returns, combat zone extensions. So if you're under fire in a combat zone, the IRS sometimes is gracious enough to extend some deadlines like a little bit sometimes. So let's see what they got here. Members of the military qualify for an additional extension of at least 180 days to file pay taxes if either of the following situations apply. So there's a link to that additional 180 days here. They serve in a combat zone or they have qualifying service outside of a combat zone or they serve on deployment outside the United States away from their permanent duty station while participating in a contingency operation. This is a military operation that is designated by the Secretary of Defense or results in calling members of the uniformed services to active duty or retains them on active duty during a war or a national emergency declared by the president or Congress. Deadlines are also extended for individual serving in a combat zone or a contingency operation in support of the armed forces. There's a link to that here. This applies to Red Cross personnel, accredited correspondence and civilian personnel acting under the direction of the armed forces in support of those forces. Spouses of individuals who served in a combat zone or contingency operations are generally entitled to the same deadline extensions with some exceptions. Extensions detailed and more military tax information. There's a link to that here is available in IRS Publication Three Formed Armed Forces tax guide. There's a link to that. Visit irs.gov, irs.gov for tax information. Tax help and filing information is available anytime on irs.gov, irs.gov for tax information, victory over tax information. The IRS website offers a variety of online tools to help taxpayer answer common tax questions. For example, taxpayers can search the interactive tax assistance tax topics and frequently asked questions to get answers to common questions. There's links to that stuff. irs.gov forward slash payments provides information on electronic payment options. There's a link to that, other resources too. There's so many things that we can look at in this and here it's just incredible and just overwhelmed with excitement. About Publication 54 tax guide for US citizen and resident aliens abroad. About Publication 519 US tax guide for aliens. All this stuff, all these links that we talked about and reading resources and publications are, there's links to that here and there'll be a link to this in the description.