Do I Have to File US Taxes If I Live Abroad?

Yes — if you are a US citizen or a lawful permanent resident and your worldwide income exceeds the filing threshold, you file a US federal return no matter where you live. The United States is one of the very few countries that taxes on citizenship rather than residence, and living abroad, paying tax abroad, or holding another passport does not switch that off.

That is the part everyone eventually hears. The part that is actually worth understanding is what the threshold is, and what else arrives with the return.

The income thresholds, which are lower than people expect

The gross-income filing threshold under IRC §6012 tracks the standard deduction for most filing statuses. It is gross worldwide income — before the FEIE, before the foreign tax credit, and in US dollars.

Filing and owing are different questions

Most Americans abroad file and owe nothing. Two mechanisms do that work: the Foreign Tax Credit credits tax you already paid where you live against your US tax on the same income, and the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion excludes up to $130,000 of earned income if you meet the residence or presence test.

Both are elective and claimed on a return. The FEIE in particular is not an exemption from filing — it is a number you put on Form 2555, attached to the Form 1040 you were required to file anyway. "I earn less than the FEIE limit so I do not have to file" is the single most common wrong turn in expat tax, and it is exactly backwards.

The forms that ignore your income entirely

Even in a year where you owe nothing, three separate reporting obligations run on their own triggers, and their penalties do not depend on tax being due:

• The [FBAR](/fbar) — required once your foreign financial accounts together exceed $10,000 at any point in the year. It goes to FinCEN, not the IRS, and it is due whether or not you file a return.
• [Form 8938](/form-8938) — FATCA reporting attached to the return, starting abroad at $200,000 year-end or $300,000 peak for a single filer.
• [Form 8621](/form-8621) — generally one per non-US fund or ETF you hold, per year. This is the one that turns a simple return into an expensive one, and it applies to ordinary European index funds held in an ordinary brokerage account.

Your deadline is probably not April 15

US taxpayers whose tax home is abroad get an automatic two-month extension to June 15 under 26 CFR §1.6081-5, with a further extension available to October 15 and a discretionary date of December 15 beyond it. Interest still runs from April 15 on anything owed. The FBAR runs on its own calendar: April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15. The deadlines guide has the full picture.

The exemptions people believe in that do not exist

• "There is a tax treaty, so I am covered." Every US treaty contains a saving clause preserving the United States' right to tax its own citizens as if the treaty did not exist. Treaties allocate taxing rights and relieve double taxation; they do not relieve you of filing.
• "I already pay tax here." That is what the foreign tax credit is for — and it is claimed on the return you still have to file.
• "I have never lived in the US." Citizenship, not residence, is the test. Accidental Americans and dual citizens who have never set foot in the country have the same filing obligation.
• "My income is all local, from a local employer." Worldwide income means worldwide. The source of the income does not change the filing requirement.
• "I renounced, so I am done." Renunciation ends future obligations from the expatriation date, and brings its own final-year filings and possibly Form 8854. It does not retroactively clear earlier years.

Work out your own answer

1. Confirm your status. US citizen, or lawful permanent resident (green-card holder), for any part of the year. Either one carries the obligation.
2. Total your worldwide gross income in US dollars for the year, before any exclusion or credit, using an acceptable exchange-rate convention.
3. Compare it against the threshold for your filing status — and if you are married to a non-US person, work out whether you are filing separately, because that threshold is effectively zero.
4. Check the self-employment test separately. $400 of net self-employment earnings of net self-employment earnings creates a filing requirement on its own.
5. Run the account tests, whatever the income answer was. Add up the peak balances of every foreign financial account: over $10,000 combined means an FBAR, and higher totals bring Form 8938 into play.
6. List every investment holding that is not a US-domiciled fund. Each is a candidate PFIC with its own Form 8621, and this is what determines whether your return is simple or complex.

If the answer is "yes, and I have not been"

That is an ordinary situation with an established route back, and the years do not compound the way people fear — a qualifying Streamlined Foreign Offshore catch-up is a fixed package of returns and FBARs regardless of how far behind you are. Never filed US taxes while living abroad covers what actually happens and which door fits.