Free to start with an on-screen summary — you pay only to generate the package.
Check the common United Kingdom products
Pick every one that applies. Each gets its own read — what the US sees inside the wrapper, and which form it points at.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full portfolio scanner
A screen from the product type. Whether a specific fund is a PFIC turns on its own annual facts; whether a wrapper is a trust or a pension for US purposes turns on its documents.
What actually applies
| Form | What it is | What makes it bite in the UK |
|---|---|---|
| Form 1040 | The US federal return, on worldwide income. | Filed regardless of UK residence. The UK tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, so a P60 or SA302 needs splitting to line up with the US calendar year. |
| Form 1116 | Foreign Tax Credit for foreign income tax paid. | PAYE income tax usually exceeds US tax on the same salary. ISA income is UK-tax-free, so there's nothing to credit against whatever US tax applies to it. |
| FinCEN 114 (FBAR) | Report of non-US financial accounts once the combined peak exceeds $10,000. | Current accounts, savings, ISAs, a Building Society account. UK banking spreads balances across accounts, and the FBAR aggregates them all. |
| Form 8938 | FATCA reporting of specified foreign financial assets, filed with the return. | Higher thresholds than the FBAR — from $200,000 year-end for a single filer abroad — but a broader class of assets, which can reach a SIPP. |
| Form 8621 | One per PFIC per year, subject to the form's own triggers. | OEICs, unit trusts and investment trusts held in an ISA, SIPP or general account. This is where a routine UK return stops being routine. |
| Form 8833 | Disclosure of a treaty-based return position that overrides the default treatment. | Not needed for the ordinary Form 1116 credit. An Article 17 pension position is the usual reason it comes up. |
| Streamlined (Form 14653) | The catch-up route for non-willful taxpayers living abroad. | A common path for the long-settled American population across London, Edinburgh and Manchester. |
A form listed here does not mean it applies to you. Which of these your return needs depends on your accounts, holdings and income.
Salary and accounts
Income tax withheld at source under PAYE, plus employee National Insurance, generally exceeds the US tax on the same salary. Form 1116 credits it category by category, and the residual US tax on employment income is commonly zero.
Your P60 and payslips are the cleanest evidence of UK tax actually withheld — exactly what the credit needs, once the April–April period is split to the US calendar year.
A current account, a savings account, an ISA, a Building Society account — each is a non-US financial account. The FBAR adds their peaks together, so accounts that each look modest can cross $10,000 between them.
HMRC treating an ISA as tax-free changes nothing here. The FBAR and Form 8938 layers are independent of UK domestic tax treatment.
If you hold an ISA or SIPP
It is the standard UK financial advice and, for a US citizen, a standard PFIC problem. Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, interactive investor and most UK platforms sell Irish- or UK-domiciled OEICs, unit trusts and investment trusts, because there is no US-domicile equivalent on the mainstream UK retail shelf. Generally one Form 8621 per fund per year — inside an ISA or a SIPP just as much as in a general investment account.
Direct shares in Shell, AstraZeneca or Unilever are not PFICs, and neither is a UK gilt held directly.
Two UK-only wrinkles
Cash ISA interest is straightforward interest income on a US return. A stocks-and-shares ISA is where it gets harder: the wrapper is invisible to the IRS, and the OEICs or unit trusts typically held inside it are PFICs in their own right.
Whether a SIPP is treated as a qualifying pension for US purposes, what that means for current-year taxation of growth, and what reporting applies, has to be worked out from the arrangement's own terms — not assumed from the tax-free UK label.
HMRC's tax year runs 6 April to 5 April; the US return runs the calendar year. A P60 or SA302 covering the wrong twelve months produces a Foreign Tax Credit claim in the wrong US year unless the periods are reconciled.
Free tool · no account
Pick your platform — Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, interactive investor, IBKR — and what you hold, or paste the ISINs from your statement.
Result
Tell us what you hold
Pick the closest match on the left, or paste your ISINs below and we'll flag each one.
More for US taxpayers in United Kingdom: PFICs for Americans in the UK.
Educational estimate, not tax advice. Domicile is the fund's legal home, not the broker or exchange you used. Broker and provider policies change — confirm current terms with your provider before acting.
Wise, Revolut, Monzo and the FBAR
Which Wise entity holds the account, what a multi-currency balance is worth at the Treasury year-end rate, and what happens when the entity changed mid-year.
The account, the vaults and the ‘Flexible’ funds — which are money-market funds and can be PFICs — each answered on its own.
Monzo, Starling, N26, Curve, crypto exchanges: the entity test, multiple currencies, records, Form 8938 and the forgot-to-report routes.
Form 8854 and the exit tax
What the form certifies, the three covered-expatriate tests, and the mark-to-market deemed sale that follows for a covered expatriate.
The indexed net-worth and average-tax-liability thresholds by year, and the compliance certification most people fail first.
The readiness screen returns a five-year timeline — which years need a Streamlined catch-up before Form 8854 can be signed — and opens a secure case for review.
Catch-up · United Kingdom
A US citizen or green-card holder living in the United Kingdom who has not filed US returns or FBARs can usually come current through a published IRS route rather than a penalty case. Which route depends on whether returns were filed at all, whether the failure was non-willful, and what UK accounts and investments the open years contain. Nothing is counting down — no IRS-announced end date is currently published.
What changes a submission from the United Kingdom
UK current and savings accounts, cash and stocks-and-shares ISAs, a SIPP and an app account held by a non-US entity all count toward the FBAR aggregate; the funds inside a stocks-and-shares ISA are commonly PFICs, which adds a Form 8621 to every open year.
Accounts readers here usually have to count: Current and savings accounts · Cash and stocks-and-shares ISAs · SIPP · Wise / Revolut / Monzo.
Programme status
Active — no announced end date
Verified against the IRS instructions and the IRM on October 6, 2026. Is the Streamlined procedure ending?
The eligibility check is free and screens the published gates; the case assessment is the paid, per-year review that names the forms and deadlines for your own years.
Behind on filings?
A qualifying taxpayer files the most recent 3 years of returns and the most recent 6 years of FBARs, with the offshore penalty at 0%. Two gates: non-willful conduct, and the non-residency test — no US abode and at least 330 full days outside the United States, in at least one of the last three years for which the return due date has passed.
On PAYE salary, the tax across those years is often little or nothing after the credit for UK tax. The volume is in the information returns — a Stocks & Shares ISA held for several years produces one Form 8621 per fund per year across the whole window.
You certify non-willfulness on Form 14653, under penalty of perjury. Atamatax prepares the return side; you write the certification in your own words, assemble the mailing from the package's instructions, and file.
The treaty, in short
US–United Kingdom Convention 2001
The convention allocates taxing rights and provides relief from double taxation — for a US citizen, almost always as a credit on Form 1116. The saving clause preserves US taxation of citizens subject to the exceptions listed in Article 1.
The UK treaty desk does the article-level work, including how the ISA and SIPP wrappers actually resolve. This page exists for the broader question of what living in the UK does to a US return.
London has its own guide too, for city-level detail on City finance equity compensation and Canary Wharf employers.
The UK desk
FBAR for Americans in the UK
How UK current accounts, ISAs and SIPPs count toward the $10,000 combined-peak FBAR threshold, and how the FBAR differs from Form 8938.
PFICs & Form 8621 for Americans in the UK
Why UK ISAs, investment trusts and OEICs are often PFICs for U.S. persons, and what Form 8621 means for each fund you hold.
The UK ISA and US tax: the exemption stops at the border
An ISA is the default British way to save and, for a US citizen, one of the least efficient places to hold a fund. The UK exemption is real; it simply has no US counterpart.
The UK SIPP and US tax: a pension, which is not the same as an exemption
Unlike an ISA, a SIPP is a pension — so the US–UK treaty is genuinely in play. That makes the analysis better, and also less certain. This page separates what is settled from what is a position.
U.S. Tax Filing for Americans in London
Fixed-fee support for U.S. citizens and Green Card holders in London — UK salary and PAYE, ISAs and SIPPs, City finance equity, FBAR and FATCA reporting.
United Kingdom · US treaty desk
The 2001 convention and 2002 Protocol, article by article.
FBAR & Form 8938 threshold checker
Test your UK account balances against both thresholds.
All country desks
US filing abroad, adapted to where you live.
Guides for US taxpayers in United KingdomRelated
The layers a US return runs through don't change by country — what changes is which local accounts, funds and pensions actually trigger them. Here's how United Kingdom compares.
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.
Free to start · no card
Scan your ISA or SIPP, see your PFIC count, check your FBAR and Form 8938 thresholds, and get the forms your return needs. You pay only to generate the package.
Want to see one mapped first? US citizen in the UK — an ISA full of UCITS funds — an illustrative case run through the same engine.