Case Library · illustrative situations

What a US expat situation looks like once it is mapped.

Five situations Americans abroad actually arrive with. Each one is a fixed set of Tax Map answers run through the same rules your own answers go through — so the filings, the open questions and the recommended route are what the engine says, not what a writer says.

These are illustrative examples, not clients. No case here describes a real person, and none is a determination about anyone's taxes.

• Switzerland · illustrative

  US citizen in Switzerland — VIAC and Swissquote

  A US citizen employed in Zurich for six years, filing every year, with a fund-based Pillar 3a at VIAC, a Swissquote account holding Irish UCITS ETFs bought monthly, and a Pillar 2 through the employer.

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• United Kingdom · illustrative

  US citizen in the UK — an ISA full of UCITS funds

  A dual US–UK citizen in London who has never filed a US return, with a Stocks & Shares ISA at Hargreaves Lansdown holding OEICs and Irish ETFs, a workplace pension, and no idea the ISA was visible to the IRS.

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• Italy · illustrative

  Retired American in Italy — a pension and foreign ETFs

  A retired US citizen in Tuscany, married to an Italian, filing separately every year, living on a US pension and Italian bank interest, with ETF armonizzati at Fineco and no non-US company or trust.

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• Germany · illustrative

  American in Germany — a Trade Republic ETF Sparplan

  A US citizen software engineer in Berlin, two years behind on US returns after assuming a German employer settled everything, with a monthly ETF Sparplan at Trade Republic and a Riester contract.

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• France · illustrative

  American in France — a PEA and an assurance-vie

  A US citizen freelancer in Paris, filing every year on the FEIE, with a PEA holding French and Luxembourg funds, an assurance-vie with a unit-linked allocation, and a small share in a French SARL with a partner.

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