Cost · PFIC filing
What does a PFIC accountant cost?
Why PFIC returns are priced per form, what actually drives the number on your quote, and how to bring it down before you ask for one.
By Danilson Ramos · Founder, Atamatax
Published August 2026 · Updated September 2026
Check it for your own holding
Could this investment be a PFIC?
Two questions and, if you have it, the ticker or ISIN. The read is immediate, nothing you enter leaves this page, and it names what would settle the rest.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full portfolio scanner
Screened against the fund registry on this page. It is never sent anywhere.
A screen. Whether a fund is a PFIC turns on its own annual income and asset facts under §1297; the read above says how far your answers go and what would settle the rest.
The honest answer is that it depends far more on your holdings than on the firm. A US expat return with no foreign funds is a fairly standard job. Add PFICs and the pricing model changes, because the work changes: each fund is a separate computation with its own election, its own holding-period allocation and its own form.
Why PFIC work is billed per form
Much of the labour on a PFIC return is per-fund analysis. For each relevant PFIC a preparer may need to establish the acquisition date and cost basis, determine the applicable treatment (QEF, mark-to-market, or the §1291 default), allocate an excess distribution or gain across the holding period, compute the deferred tax and interest charge, and prepare Form 8621. That work often does not compress across funds, which is why quotes can scale with the portfolio.
| Work component | Common pricing approach | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Base expat return | Package or case quote | Income sources, states, self-employment, included forms |
| Form 8621 work | Per form, hourly, or included | Reporting method, holding period, transactions, data quality |
| Basis reconstruction | Often hourly or case-specific | Missing statements, transfers between brokers |
| Prior-year catch-up (Streamlined) | Case-specific | Number of years and funds in each year |
What actually drives your number
- How many PFICs you hold. The dominant factor. Four UCITS ETFs generally means four forms per year, not one.
- How many years. A catch-up filing multiplies everything by the number of years in scope — this is where costs escalate most sharply.
- Whether you have basis and acquisition dates. Missing data is manual reconstruction work, and it is the most common reason a quote comes back higher than expected.
- Which election you make. Mark-to-market is generally the lighter computation; a §1291 excess-distribution allocation across a long holding period is heavier.
- Whether you sold or received distributions. A year with a disposition or a large distribution carries far more computation than a quiet holding year.
How to bring the cost down before you ask for a quote
- Export the annual positions statement with ISINs from each broker, for every year in scope.
- Separate US-domiciled holdings from non-US ones — US ETFs are not PFICs and should never be billed as such.
- Recover acquisition dates and cost basis now, while you can still reach old statements and support desks.
- Count your actual Form 8621 workload so you can sanity-check any quote you receive against a per-form rate.
Where Atamatax fits
Atamatax uses the configured PFIC · $499 product rather than adding a price for every form: it includes up to 25 Form 8621 drafts, with supported classification inputs and the §1291 computation handled by the engine. What you receive is a reviewable draft package — official Form 8621 PDFs plus mapped 1040 and schedule worksheets — which you or your CPA review and file. For unusual facts, a professional opinion may be the right purchase, and the CPA export can provide organised worksheets for that engagement.
Find out how many forms you are actually looking at
The free estimator turns your holdings and years into a Form 8621 count and a complexity read, so you can compare a flat price against a per-form quote on the same basis.
From one fund to the whole case
What does your PFIC situation actually require?
Four questions — how many funds, for how long, whether Forms 8621 were ever filed, whether the returns are current — and a route into the preparation that fits, with what it costs. Nothing you answer leaves this page.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full portfolio scanner
A routing read, not a determination. Whether a fund is a PFIC, whether an exception applies and what a prior year needs are established when the holdings are screened; the route above says where that happens and what it costs.
Authorities cited
- IRS Form 8621 — About Form 8621 — Information Return by a Shareholder of a PFIC or QEF
- IRC §1291 — IRC §1291 — Interest on tax deferral (excess-distribution regime)
- IRC §1295 — IRC §1295 — Qualified Electing Fund (QEF) election
- IRC §1296 — IRC §1296 — Mark-to-market election for marketable PFIC stock
Primary sources (Cornell Legal Information Institute for the US Code and CFR; IRS.gov for forms, procedures, and treaty documents). This page is general information, not individualized tax or legal advice.
Atamatax provides tax preparation support and educational resources. This website does not constitute legal or tax advice.