Built for Americans living abroad
Expat taxes, done right—without the PFIC guesswork.
Upload a brokerage CSV or enter your tickers. Atamatax checks PFIC, FBAR, FATCA, and foreign-tax-credit exposure, then shows you the forms and work involved before you pay.
Atamatax is self-serve tax-preparation software, not a CPA firm. It produces a reviewable draft package; integrated e-file is not currently available.
Start with what you know
Choose the check that fits your situation
Each path starts free and tells you what applies before asking you to buy anything.
One scan.
Four steps to a reviewable draft package.
- 01Connect your brokerageRead-only through Plaid — Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, IBKR, Robinhood — or drop a positions CSV. Nothing is moved, nothing is touched.
- 02Review likely PFICsFund-domicile and ticker heuristics flag likely foreign-domiciled UCITS funds for your confirmation and map supported holdings to Form 8621 worksheets.
- 03Run the §1291 mathQEF, mark-to-market, and §1291 throwback computed per holding — the election surfaced for your confirmation, never auto-decided, never black-boxed.
- 04Generate a reviewable draft packageThe free wizard shows supported calculations and mappings. After payment, the generated package includes supported forms and worksheets, with remaining fields called out for you or your CPA.
Clarity and control for every
part of your return
A clear, structured view of the cross-border holdings you provide, the supported forms they may affect, and open items to review.
Total holding visibility
Imported or manually entered positions are structured in one system. Supported broker connections and CSV imports help you review the holdings included in the draft.
Precise PFIC detection
Fund-domicile and ticker heuristics flag likely passive foreign investment companies and map supported holdings to Form 8621 worksheets under §1291, §1296, or QEF — surfaced per holding for your confirmation.
Treaty-aware filing
Supported FBAR, FATCA (8938), foreign-tax-credit (1116), and treaty-disclosure (8833) inputs are computed or mapped into a reviewable draft, with open fields identified rather than auto-decided.
Live today.
And what's still coming.
We never dress an upcoming feature as a live one. Every CTA on this site reflects what the product actually does today. If it's on the right, it isn't live yet.
Live today- Manual ticker entry
- Brokerage positions CSV upload
- Free PFIC & exposure diagnostic
- PFIC classification + explanation
- FBAR / Form 8938 threshold checks
- Draft federal package generation
- Sample PFIC report (PDF)
Coming soon- Plaid production brokerage connectionin review
- 1099-B PDF parsingroadmap
- Integrated e-filenot available
- Native iOS / Android app-store releaseroadmap
Out of scope — on purpose- Legal advice or representing you before the IRS — that's a tax attorney
- Deciding willfulness for Streamlined cases — a legal judgment, not software
- CPA review or signature — we prepare the package; you or your CPA file it
- State returns — federal-only in v1
Penalties vs. tax owedLate information returns can create
penalties — even when $0 tax is owed.
For US citizens abroad, the penalties below attach to paperwork, not to tax due — which is often zero. They are statutory ceilings, not estimates or what you will owe. The diagnostic shows which of these forms may actually apply to you before you pay for preparation.
Applies per unfiled report — one per year, not per account (Bittner v. United States, 2023). A statutory maximum, adjusted annually for inflation; reasonable cause can reduce it to zero.
The wilful ceiling, per violation — courts weigh intent and, in some circuits, reckless disregard. Fact-specific: this is the statutory maximum, not a typical outcome.
PFIC gain spread over the holding period, taxed at top ordinary rates, plus IRS underpayment interest compounded quarterly. The longer you held, the worse the math.
FATCA threshold for US persons abroad: $200k / $300k single, $400k / $600k MFJ. Miss it once — $10k. Continue past 90 days — +$10k every 30 days, capped $50k.
The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedure cures most of the above — if you qualify, and if you act before the IRS opens the conversation. A draft return through Atamatax is free; the same draft from a CPA is $3,200.
One scan.
The supported forms it touches.
Maps every line
Six chapters. ~12 min.
The forms TurboTax skips.
Each chapter cites the IRC section it implements. The wizard pauses on every election so the math stays yours — never auto-decided, never black-boxed.
Residence country, filing status, NRA-spouse flag. Loads the right bilateral treaty workflow on first input.
Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, IBKR, Robinhood through Plaid read-only — or drop a broker positions CSV.
FinCEN 114 thresholds applied to every foreign account; Form 8938 abroad-thresholds auto-computed.
Fund domicile + ticker heuristics flag Irish, Lux, Cayman funds for your confirmation. QEF · MtM · §1291 elections surfaced per holding.
Article-by-article treaty disclosure that flags when Form 8833 is required. Foreign tax credit (Form 1116) input — per-category bucketing and FX conversion in progress.
Draft tax package — supported computed figures mapped to forms and worksheets (1040 + schedules + 8621s + 8938 + 1116 + 8833), with remaining fields and the separate FBAR/FinCEN path called out.
IntegrationsSeamlessly connected to your financial ecosystem
Brokerage positions read securely through Plaid (production review in progress; sandbox demo today), settled with Stripe, stored on Supabase, and prepared for the IRS & FinCEN — you file the package yourself outside Atamatax today; integrated e-file is not available.
Who Atamatax is for
— and who it isn't.
We are software for structured, PFIC-heavy expat returns where you want a draft and full transparency. For judgment-heavy cases we tell you to use a licensed professional — and the diagnostic flags that for you.
Engineer in Germany
Holding VWRA / IWDA / CSPX in an Interactive Brokers account — classic UCITS PFIC exposure.
Accidental American in France
A US passport you barely use and an old foreign brokerage account you now have to report.
US freelancer abroad
Foreign-tax paid you want credited on Form 1116 so you aren't taxed twice.
Expat behind on filings
Several years unfiled and missing FBARs — checking whether Streamlined applies.
- Foreign corporations / Form 5471
- Foreign trusts & grantor trusts
- Active IRS audit or examination
- Complex estate or gifting plans
- State residency disputes needing legal judgment
- Anything needing individualised tax advice
Why expats stop using
spreadsheets and TurboTax
Form 8621 is the line every consumer product skips. Excel makes you a one-person tax firm; TurboTax doesn't do it at all; MyExpatTaxes charges per form. Prices below are the cheapest realistic public quote for one foreign UCITS in a Schwab account.
Comparison verified 2026-05 against publicly listed tier pages. MyExpatTaxes PFIC quote = Base $175 + Reviewed-PFIC $69 add-on.
Marco. 34. Paris.
9 holdings. 4 PFICs.
$1,156 owed — all of it PFIC math.
A worked example showing the output end-to-end — from brokerage scan through Form 1116 credit. France never taxed the mark-to-market gain on his four UCITS funds, so there is no foreign credit to erase the US tax it creates: that is the PFIC problem, made visible. Marco is not a real customer, and every figure here appears in the downloadable sample PFIC report — computed by the same 2025 engine as a paid return.
Illustrative only. Your figures will differ. Atamatax computes forms from inputs you provide and confirm.
Surgeons in Singapore.
Engineers in Berlin. Architects in Lisbon.
Illustrative scenarios, not customer testimonials. These describe the situations Atamatax is built for — sophisticated US citizens abroad with foreign brokerage accounts. Named, opt-in customer stories will be published as our beta users choose to share them.
Schwab account holding 11 Irish-domiciled UCITS ETFs → 11 × Form 8621, §1296 mark-to-market elected, with the tax shown per holding.
Five years of unfiled FBARs plus 7 PFICs at IBKR, filing MFJ with an NRA spouse → flagged for Streamlined eligibility review and year-by-year preparation, not treated as a completed submission.
A CSPX.L position across 3 funds → §1296 mark-to-market election in a single step, with the underlying math shown beside each figure.
Vanguard holdings with a QEF election → a free on-screen draft first, then a flat $499 to generate the package, with no per-form fees.
Atamatax is built in Monthey, for the exact problems Americans in Switzerland hit: fund-based pillar 3a as a PFIC trap, Swissquote and UBS fund menus, FATCA letters from Swiss banks, AHV totalization. Works worldwide — sharpest here.
Flat per return.
Free on-screen summary first.
Start with the free diagnostic — always $0. The PFIC plan at a flat $499 is what most expats here need (a CPA charges $2,000–$3,200 for the same single-year Form 8621 work). Scan your brokerage, see the forms, review the math — all free. You pay only when you generate the package. No subscription, no per-form surcharge.
PFIC scan, FBAR / Form 8938 threshold check, exposure summary, and a recommended path — software, export to CPA, or licensed professional. No card, no account required for your first scan.
You have an accountant · hand them a clean PFIC package.
US expat with a brokerage account · no PFICs detected.
Foreign-domiciled funds detected · the most common expat case.
Treaty positions, multi-year preparation, or Streamlined screening.
Years behind? Book a free eligibility and scope call for the Streamlined Concierge. Availability, the exact return/FBAR/Form 14653 work, and any human-review deliverable are confirmed before an engagement; booking the call does not purchase or guarantee a package.
Atamatax is software, not a CPA firm. Free diagnostic first; pay when generating the package — and if a package we generate has a software defect we can't fix within 14 days, you get a 100% refund. Today you receive a draft package with supported computed figures mapped to forms and worksheets (1040, 8621, 1116, 8938, 8833). Where an official PDF is integrated, it is filled only with the inputs the engine supports; the package identifies what remains for you or your CPA to complete. Atamatax does not transmit the filing today. Integrated e-file is not available.
FAQQuestions we get
every week.
Still wondering whether Atamatax fits your case? Email hello@atamatax.com — we answer within 24 hours.
Are you a licensed CPA firm?
No. Atamatax is software for tax-return preparation, like TurboTax. Today we generate a draft package mapped to IRS forms and lines; you remain responsible for the figures and the final filing. For situations the software can't handle (entities, trusts, IRS examinations), we list independent expat-tax CPAs in our help center — no referral fees, no kickbacks.
How do you actually transmit returns to the IRS?
Atamatax does not transmit returns today. We generate a draft package that maps computed figures to IRS forms and lines. It includes official IRS PDFs where integrated — Form 8621 for supported inputs, and partial pre-fills for the 1040, 1116, 2555 and 8938 — plus notes identifying fields you or your CPA must review and complete. You file outside Atamatax using a method available to you. Integrated e-file is not available.
Which brokerages do you support?
Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, Interactive Brokers, and Robinhood through Plaid (Plaid production review is in progress — sandbox demo data renders today). Broker positions-CSV upload is live today for any brokerage; 1099-B PDF parsing is on the immediate roadmap.
What if I haven't filed for a few years?
The free checker can help you assess whether the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedure may fit, and the product can organise year-specific return and FBAR inputs. Atamatax does not currently assemble or transmit a complete Streamlined submission in one workflow; each return, FBAR and Form 14653 certification still needs to be reviewed and completed outside the product or with a qualified professional.
What if I have more than 25 PFICs?
We support up to 25 individual Form 8621 filings per return — beyond that we either aggregate where the law allows or refer to an independent expat-tax CPA. Most expat brokerages have 5–15.
How does pricing work?
Flat per return: $299 (no PFICs), $499 (PFICs), $799 (PFICs + treaty positions + multi-year preparation). You only pay when you generate the package — the diagnostic and on-screen summary are free. The paid deliverable is a draft package mapped to IRS forms and lines; Atamatax does not transmit it.
What if I'm not satisfied — can I get a refund?
The diagnostic and the full on-screen review are free, so you see exactly what you're getting before you pay anything. If the draft package we generate has a software defect we can't fix within 14 days, we refund 100%. Full terms are on the pricing page.
Is my financial data safe, and what do you do with it?
No service can guarantee absolute security. Atamatax uses a read-only Plaid connection, encrypts Plaid access tokens at the application layer with AES-256-GCM, scopes stored return data to the signed-in account, and sends payment details directly to Stripe so Atamatax does not receive the card number. You can request deletion under the privacy policy. The security page describes the safeguards and their limits.
Do you handle the state return too?
Federal-only in v1. Most US expats have no state-tax exposure once domiciled abroad. If you do (CA, NM, SC, VA-style residency rules), we'll flag it before you file.
Ready when you areRun the free diagnostic.
See your exposure before you pay.
No credit card. No subscription. Scan your brokerage, see your PFIC count, check your FBAR / 8938 thresholds, and get a recommended path. Pay only to generate the package.