Reading and tools
Free · no account
Every page here, plus the tools that apply published rules to figures you enter. Enough to settle a simple question on your own.
See the free toolsStart here
What is going on for you?
Start from what is happening, not from a form number. Each situation opens with the short answer, the facts that change it and the free tool that applies to it.
Rather pick the sentence that sounds like you? Find out what you may need to file. Or see five worked, illustrative cases.
Common situations
- I have never filed U.S. taxes.Which years actually needed a return — before anyone calls it a catch-up.
- I bought non-U.S. funds or ETFs.What that means for reporting and for the fee — not an instruction to sell.
- My bank asked for U.S. tax details.What the letter is, what it is not, and which of the three separate problems you actually have.
- I started my first job abroad.Whether this year is a filing year for you, and what a small salary does and does not settle.
- My spouse is not American.Whose income and whose accounts are actually in scope — and whose are not.
- I am not sure which accounts I have to report.Why the accounts where you live are the 'foreign' ones, and how the totals actually work.
- I have always lived outside the U.S.Why a country you left as a baby still has rules for you — and what they are.
Something is changing
Retiring, moving, going freelance, leaving
Each of these changes its own set of rules, so each has its own page.
- I am retiring abroad
How U.S. retirement accounts behave once you live elsewhere, and which pension questions turn on the treaty.
- I am becoming self-employed
Self-employment tax does not follow the income-tax reliefs. The totalization agreement, not the FEIE, is what usually settles it.
- I am moving to another country
The U.S. tax year does not restart when you move, and the reliefs you relied on are tested on a timetable that ignores the move.
- I am moving back to the U.S.
What to do with foreign accounts and funds before you land, while the choices are still open.
- I am considering giving up U.S. citizenship
The exit-tax tests and Form 8854 — what is at stake, so you can brief the professional who prepares the form.
- I am selling my home abroad
One sale meets four US rules at once — the exclusion, the gain in dollars at two dates, a mortgage repaid in another currency, and the 3.8% on the excess. The screen says which may apply to yours, and what would settle each.
What costs what
Three levels of help
A personal assessment
$100 · one payment
Which years appear to have needed a return, which forms follow, and your deadlines — your figures, tested year by year. It is an assessment, not a return, and it files nothing. Creditable in full against an eligible Atamatax preparation service within 14 days.
What the assessment coversPreparation
Priced by scope
The returns and worksheets themselves, prepared for you to review, sign and file. If you already know what you need, you can start here — the assessment is not a prerequisite.
See preparation pricingThe questions people ask before they trust any of this
- What can I find out for free?
- The general answer to every question on this page, with no account and no email. The tools that apply published rules to figures you enter are free too: the FBAR and Form 8938 threshold checks, the PFIC screen, the Streamlined eligibility walkthrough and the filing-threshold check. Payment comes in only when the work needs your own figures worked through.
- Why would I pay for an assessment rather than read a guide?
- A guide tells you what the rules are. It cannot tell you which years of yours crossed which threshold, which forms your particular facts point to, or what your deadlines are — because it does not have your numbers. If reading the free page settles it, you do not need the paid one.
- Do I have to buy the assessment before you will prepare my return?
- No. If you already know what has to be filed, go straight to preparation. The assessment exists for people who do not yet know what they are dealing with, and where it points you to preparation work the fee comes off the price.
- What if the answer is that I do not need to do anything?
- Then that is the answer. Never having filed is not evidence anything was ever due, and a year below its threshold generally required no return.
- Is the result generated automatically or checked by a person?
- The free tools are automatic and say so. The paid assessment is generated by the rules engine; a case that reaches anything that should not be issued automatically is held for a check by Atamatax before release, and the report tells you which happened.
- What happens if my situation is outside what you can handle?
- You are told. An open IRS examination, a real question about whether non-reporting was deliberate, or a renunciation decision all need a qualified professional, and the page describes who to look for.
Non-willfulness is your own certification, and you file with the instructions provided. Where a question needs a qualified professional, the page says so.