Samples, generated — not customers. Every block on this page is produced by the same engine that writes a paying customer’s output, from fixed invented answers. Every name, date and figure is invented. The structure is the real one; if a rule changes, the sample changes with it.

Before you decide

What you actually receive.

Six outputs, in the order a reader meets them: the free assessment, what a Streamlined engagement is scoped as, a PFIC assessment read top to bottom, the $100 report, the hand-off an accountant receives, and the filing package itself. Read whichever one you are deciding about.

1 · The assessment · free

The structured result the US Tax Map produces

Five sections, always in this order: the situation in plain words, how complex it looks and why, the filing areas with a status each, what is still open, and one recommended next step. Built here from these answers:

US citizen, living in Switzerland all year
Filing single, employment income in the mid band
Two recent years not filed, and foreign accounts unreported in those years
Non-US funds: between four and ten, one of which paid a distribution
Swiss foreign-account peak between $50,000 and $200,000
An employer pension (pillar 2 vested benefits)

Example result · not a customer

Tax year 2025 · rule set 2026.09.4

6 potential filing areas detected

Your situation

US citizen, living in Switzerland.
US filings: I missed two years.
Income: salary or wages.
Non-US accounts at their peak: $50,000 – $200,000.
Non-US funds or ETFs: yes, 4 to 10 — I received distributions this year.
Foreign pension: an employer or occupational plan.

Complexity · High

What drives it — nothing here implies tax owed:

Non-US funds are in play. PFIC reporting is per holding per year, and the §1291 computation needs the full purchase history, not just this year's statement.
Four to ten funds is several Forms 8621 rather than one.
There are missed years to remediate as well as the current one.
A foreign employer pension brings a treaty question and, usually, Form 8938 — routine, but not automatic.

Potential filing areas

US federal tax return (Form 1040)Likely
FBAR (FinCEN Form 114)Likely
PFIC reporting (Form 8621)Likely
FATCA Form 8938Possible
Would settle it: Your specified foreign financial asset total on the last day of the year, and its highest point during the year, against $200,000 / $300,000.
Foreign pension reportingPossible
Would settle it: The plan's legal form under local law, whether the treaty defers taxation of it, whether you direct the investments inside it, and what those investments are.
Streamlined Foreign Offshore ProceduresPossible
Would settle it: The non-residency test year by year, and a written non-willfulness statement on Form 14653 — which is signed under penalty of perjury.

Reliefs in play: Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (Form 2555) · Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116).

Catch-up read

Your answers appear consistent with several Streamlined Foreign Offshore criteria

Published criteria: Possibly consistent with the published Streamlined Foreign Offshore factors, on your answers.

Non-willfulness: Professional judgment required. Your description is the ordinary non-willful case; the certification is still yours to sign and a professional's to confirm where there is doubt.

Information still needed

Your specified foreign financial asset total on the last day of the year, and its highest point during the year, against $200,000 / $300,000.
The plan's legal form under local law, whether the treaty defers taxation of it, whether you direct the investments inside it, and what those investments are.
The non-residency test year by year, and a written non-willfulness statement on Form 14653 — which is signed under penalty of perjury.
A valid SSN or ITIN in hand before submission — a published prerequisite.
Which years and forms are actually missing, from IRS transcripts rather than memory.

Recommended next step · one, not five

U.S. Filing Obligations Diagnostic

Your answers leave open which years actually required a return. The diagnostic tests each year against that year's published threshold — the one question this map cannot settle, and the first one a catch-up turns on.
The catch-up years include non-US funds or a personal foreign plan, so each back year needs PFIC work as well as the return and the FBAR.

Button on the real result: Check which years needed a return — $100 · where it leads: Streamlined Investor ($2,200)

The Atamatax Express Plan ($49, credited toward filing) is the organised version of this result — years, documents, an order of work. See the sample plan, or build your own map.

2 · A Streamlined scope · $1,590–$2,990+

What a catch-up engagement is scoped as

The same sample answers, read for the catch-up: which years, which returns and FBARs, what to gather, the certification you sign, and what is delivered. Every line below is the plan’s own text for these facts.

Route read

Your answers appear consistent with several Streamlined Foreign Offshore criteria

Return years: 2025, 2024, 2023
FBAR years: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020

Counted from the years whose due date has already passed. A year on extension, or a submission made after the next due date, shifts the window forward by one — confirm the exact set from IRS transcripts before preparing anything.

Certification

The submission includes a written non-willfulness statement on Form 14653, signed under penalty of perjury. Atamatax prepares the package and the facts timeline; the statement is yours, and whether it holds is a judgement for you and, where there is doubt, a professional.

Consistent with the route, on these answers

US citizen or green-card holder — the group the foreign procedures are written for.
Home and work outside the US for the year — consistent with the non-residency test, which still has to be met year by year.
No IRS contact reported. The procedures are only available before an examination opens.
You described the missed years as not knowing you had to file — the ordinary non-willful case, which is what the certification describes.
FBARs were missed in the same years, which the foreign procedure covers alongside the returns.

Not yet established

A valid SSN or ITIN in hand before submission — a published prerequisite.
Which years and forms are actually missing, from IRS transcripts rather than memory.
Swiss tax records for each year, since foreign tax paid is what usually brings the US tax on the back years to zero.

Documents to gather

For every year in scope
- Your most recent US returns as filed, or the last one you filed if it was some time ago
- Passport or other proof of identity, and your SSN or ITIN
- Swiss tax returns or assessments for each year, showing income and foreign income tax paid
- Wage or salary statements, pension statements and any self-employment accounts for each year
- Dates of any US trips in each year, for the residence and physical-presence tests
FBAR
- A list of every non-US account: institution name and address, account number, and whether it is yours or one you only sign on
- The highest balance of each account at any point during the year, in the account's currency (statements or an online export)
- Joint accounts and accounts you hold for a business, a child or a parent — they count
Form 8938
- Year-end and peak values of each specified foreign financial asset — accounts, directly-held foreign stock, insurance and pension interests
- Any foreign entity interests and their year-end value
PFIC / Form 8621
- Brokerage or fund statements for every year you held each fund, not only this year
- Each fund's full name and ISIN, so its domicile and structure can be established
- Purchase dates and amounts, sale dates and proceeds, and every distribution received
- Any PFIC annual information statement the fund provides (rare, but it changes the options)
Foreign pensions
- Annual plan statements showing the year-end value and the year's contributions, split employer and employee
- The plan's rules or a description of its legal form, and whether you choose the investments inside it
- Any distributions or withdrawals in the year
Catch-up submission
- IRS account transcripts and wage transcripts for the years in scope (free, from the IRS)
- Any FBAR confirmation numbers for reports already filed
- A short timeline of when and how you learned about the obligation — the raw material for the non-willfulness statement
- Residence and travel dates for each of the three years, for the non-residency test

Order of work

Order IRS account and wage transcripts for the years in question to confirm exactly which returns and FBARs are missing.
Gather the prior US returns you have and the local tax records for each year in scope.
Build the account list with each account's highest balance during the year — this feeds both the FBAR and Form 8938 and is the item most people underestimate.
Export brokerage statements for every year each fund was held and list each fund's ISIN; establish which holdings are PFICs before any return is prepared.
Collect the pension plan statements and rules, and establish the plan's legal form and whether the treaty defers it — this decides which forms the pension appears on.
Confirm the catch-up route — foreign Streamlined, domestic Streamlined, or a narrower procedure — from the transcripts and the residence dates, before preparing any year.
Decide between the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and the Foreign Tax Credit before preparing the earliest year — the choice is hard to reverse and applies year on year.
Prepare the returns for each catch-up year with their information forms, then the FBARs, then the certification statement — and only then submit as one package.

A professional decides

Foreign pension treatment: the treaty article and the plan's legal form decide which forms apply and whether growth is taxed now.
FEIE versus Foreign Tax Credit: the election is hard to reverse and depends on figures this assessment did not ask for.

Streamlined Investor — $2,200. The catch-up years include non-US funds or a personal foreign plan, so each back year needs PFIC work as well as the return and the FBAR.

What you get · what stays with youYou sign Form 14653 and file, with the instructions provided.

Who does what

Who prepares it: A person at Atamatax prepares the three returns, the six FBAR years and the Form 14653 organiser from your documents, against the written scope, with the engine computing the figures. You write your own statement of facts.
Who checks it, and how: A person at Atamatax checks the package for completeness before release — an operational check, not a review by a credentialed tax professional. No EA or CPA review is included unless your written scope names one.
Who signs: You sign every return and the Form 14653 certification, under penalties of perjury. Atamatax neither determines nor certifies non-willfulness.
Who files: You mail the returns to the IRS as the Streamlined instructions direct, and file the FBARs on FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. Atamatax transmits nothing to the IRS or FinCEN.
Before you can buy: Always scoped first: free case scoping, then a written scope and a fixed quote from a person before any payment. An open IRS examination, a question about willfulness or an unsettled US status is read by a person before anything is quoted. A foreign company or trust is prepared with a specialist and named in the scope.

You receive

A Streamlined Foreign Offshore preparation package: up to three delinquent returns and six FBAR years as worksheets mapped to each year's official forms (official PDFs for the current filing year), a document completeness check, the Form 14653 organiser, and filing instructions — one scoped quote, one payment.

Still yours to do

You certify non-willfulness on Form 14653, sign, and file with the instructions provided
Write your own statement of facts; a person at Atamatax organises it into the Form 14653 structure.

Outside this offer

The non-willfulness certification — yours, on Form 14653.
The submission itself — you file with the instructions provided.
Review or sign-off by a credentialed EA or CPA.
Personalised tax, legal or investment advice.

Computed for tax years 2022–2026; official pre-filled IRS PDFs are integrated for tax year 2025, other years are delivered as worksheets mapped line-by-line to that year's forms.

Terms version 2026-08-27

How the engagement runs · Check my catch-up options

3 · A PFIC assessment

Holdings in, classification logic, what is missing, the forms, the next step

An invented Swiss case (Marco Example) run through the same pipeline a live case goes through: identify each instrument, screen it, compose its dossier, detect the gaps, measure the workload. A screen is a classification with its rule and confidence next to it — never a determination.

Investment data (2 holdings)

Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF · IE00B3RBWM25 · IE · Swissquote
cost basis on record · purchase history on record · not sold · distributions received
Swisscanto (CH) Index Equity Fund World · CH0117044708 · CH · Swissquote
no cost basis on record · no purchase history · not sold · no distributions

Classification logic, per holding

Holding	Screen	Confidence	Rule	Determination
Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF	confirmed_pfic	high	pfic-screen@2026-08-26.4	screened_likely_pfic (engine) Screened as a registry-confirmed PFIC from its identity (canonical registry). A screen is not a tax determination; a person verifies it before any form is prepared.
Swisscanto (CH) Index Equity Fund World	likely_pfic	medium	pfic-screen@2026-08-26.4	screened_likely_pfic (engine) Screened as a likely PFIC from its identity (isin domicile and structure). A screen is not a tax determination; a person verifies it before any form is prepared.

Missing inputs (12)

Swisscanto (CH) Index Equity Fund World: no purchase date or quantity is on record, so the holding period cannot be established. · MISSING_CRITICAL
When did you first buy Swisscanto (CH) Index Equity Fund World, and how many units?
Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF: no value at 31 December 2025. · MISSING_CRITICAL
What was Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF worth on 31 December 2025?
Settled by: Year-end 2025 statement
UBS: the highest balance during 2025 is not on record; the FBAR line for that year cannot be completed. · MISSING_CRITICAL
What was the highest balance of your UBS account at any point in 2025?
Settled by: 2025 statements for UBS showing the peak balance
Swissquote: the highest balance during 2025 is not on record; the FBAR line for that year cannot be completed. · MISSING_CRITICAL
What was the highest balance of your Swissquote account at any point in 2025?
Settled by: 2025 statements for Swissquote showing the peak balance
UBS: the highest balance during 2023 is not on record; the FBAR line for that year cannot be completed. · MISSING_CRITICAL
What was the highest balance of your UBS account at any point in 2023?
Settled by: 2023 statements for UBS showing the peak balance
Swissquote: the highest balance during 2023 is not on record; the FBAR line for that year cannot be completed. · MISSING_CRITICAL
What was the highest balance of your Swissquote account at any point in 2023?
Settled by: 2023 statements for Swissquote showing the peak balance
Whether a 2023 return was filed is unknown; the Streamlined return set cannot be fixed until it is. · MISSING_CRITICAL
Was a U.S. return filed for 2023?
Swissquote: whether you own the account or only sign on it is not recorded. · MISSING_USEFUL
Do you own the Swissquote account, or do you only have signature authority over it?
Purchase records complete — not yet answered. · MISSING_USEFUL
Do you have records of what you originally paid for them, and when?
Complete broker and fund statements: not yet provided. · MISSING_USEFUL
Can you upload: Complete broker and fund statements?
Settled by: Complete broker and fund statements
Swissquote: opening date not recorded. · OPTIONAL
Roughly when was the Swissquote account opened?
Foreign tax records for 2024: provided, awaiting a person's check. · OPTIONAL
Foreign tax records for 2024 — no action needed from you right now.

Potential forms, per holding and year

Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF 2024Form 8621 expected — not established from a screen · §1291 default
Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF 2025Form 8621 expected — not established from a screen · §1291 default
Swisscanto (CH) Index Equity Fund World 2024Form 8621 expected — not established from a screen

Workload · high

2 likely PFICs across 3 tax years · about 6 Forms 8621 · 1 without a cost basis on record.

6 holding-year reviews may be needed before any exception is applied.
3 tax years require year-specific facts and elections to be checked.
Purchase dates or cost basis are missing and must be reconstructed or reviewed.
Sales or distributions may require transaction-level calculations.

Case complexity · extended

years:3
pfics:2
pfics_without_basis:1
countries:3

Next action, on a real portfolio

Start with the free scan — it produces this screen for your own holdings — then the PFIC Portfolio ($499, one tax year, Up to 25 Forms 8621 · one tax year) prepares the Forms 8621, or CPA Export ($199) hands the analysis to your own accountant.

Scan my portfolio · The whole professional dossier this comes from

4 · U.S. Filing Obligations Diagnostic · $100

The complete report, on a composite case

Year by year: whether a return was required against that year’s published threshold, the FBAR, the forms in play, the catch-up route, what is still missing and the next step — every conclusion naming the rule and the official source. A composite, not a real customer: a U.S. citizen who moved to Germany five years ago, kept filing for the first two years, then stopped. She has a German brokerage account she does not think of as investments, and one early year she genuinely cannot reconstruct.

Read the whole sample report What the $100 covers

5 · The accountant hand-off

How a case is organised for professional review

The same invented case as an accountant sees it: the facts the client confirmed, the open questions, the document checklist with the reason each item is asked for, the filing areas, and the export — JSON and CSV, built through the live pipeline.

Streamlined preparation · Marco Example

Documents needed · tax years 2023, 2024, 2025 · 1 open question

Connection to the United States: U.S. citizen
Country of residence: Switzerland
U.S. return: Not filed · 2024
Income: Employment / internship + Bank interest · 2024
Non-U.S. funds or ETFs: Yes · unconfirmed

Filing areas: FBAR, Form 1040, Form 8621, Form 8938

Document checklist, with reasons

Foreign account statements showing the highest balance in 2024 · fulfilled
The client's accounts appear to have exceeded the FBAR level for 2024. The report asks for each account's highest balance in the year, which only a statement can show.
Complete broker and fund statements · required
The client holds non-U.S. funds. Whether each is a PFIC, and what a Form 8621 says for it, follows from the fund's identity and the purchase, sale and distribution history.

The accountant’s case view · The export, rendered · How accountants use it

6 · The filing package

The generated package, as a PDF

A worked example on a synthetic nine-position portfolio with four PFICs, generated by the same code path as a paid package and stamped as a sample throughout. Its sections:

WorkpaperOfficial form integration statusWhich forms are appended as pre-filled official IRS PDFs and which are worksheets to transcribe — stated per copy, never assumed.
Calculation traceForm 1040 · summary of income & taxThe computed return figures, line by line, with the §1291 ordinary-income and throwback rows where a PFIC was sold.
WorkpaperPortfolio · positions importedEvery holding as read from the statement, with its classification and the confidence behind it.
Calculation traceForm 8621 · filingsOne filing per PFIC: the regime (§1291, QEF or mark-to-market), the inputs, and the per-fund computation trace.
Calculation traceForm 8938 (FATCA) & FinCEN 114 (FBAR)Both threshold tests on the same accounts, with the year-end and peak figures the verdicts rest on.
Calculation traceForm 1116 · Foreign Tax Credit detailThe credit computation by category, and what it leaves uncovered.
Open itemsOpen data points · refine before filingWhat the package could not settle from the documents, named so it is answered before anything is filed.
AssumptionsAssumption log · for your CPAEvery assumption the computation made, with the source it rests on, so an accountant can accept or overturn each one.
Sources & provenanceProvenance · decisions not takenThe positions the package deliberately did not choose for you — elections, treaty positions — and why.
WorkpaperFiling checklist — what to mailWhat goes where: the return to the IRS, the FBAR to FinCEN — both filed by you with the instructions provided.

See a sample Form 8621 package (PDF)Supported forms and lines

Yours will differ — the shape will not

The years, the statuses and the route come from your own answers. What stays the same is what each output separates: the facts you gave, what the rules make of them, what is assumed, what is still missing, and what a professional has to decide. How the rules are sourced and versioned is on the methodology page; how the engine is checked on accuracy & review; where your data lives on security.

Start from my situation