US Expat Tax Deadlines: June 15, October 15 & FBAR

Americans abroad follow the same U.S. tax year as everyone else, but they get some extra time to file. The catch is that more time to file is not always more time to pay — interest can still run from the spring deadline even when filing is extended.

The automatic two-month extension

If your tax home and abode are outside the U.S., you generally get an automatic two-month extension to file, pushing the usual mid-April deadline to around June 15 (the exact date shifts with weekends and holidays each year). You typically attach a statement noting you qualify; no separate request is required for this part.

Pushing to October, and the FBAR

If you need more time, filing Form 4868 generally extends the deadline to around October 15. Separately, the FBAR (FinCEN 114) is due with the spring deadline but is automatically extended to around October 15 with no form to file. A further short extension beyond October may be available in limited cases.

The December extension almost nobody uses

Beyond October there is a further two-month extension to around December 15, and it is available only to taxpayers living abroad. It is not automatic: you write to the IRS before the October date explaining why you need the time, and it is granted at their discretion. There is no form — a letter is the mechanism.

Estimated tax has its own four dates

If you expect to owe US tax after withholding and credits — common for the self-employed abroad, and for anyone whose foreign tax credit will not cover the whole US liability — you are generally paying quarterly estimated tax on Form 1040-ES. Those instalments fall in April, June, September and the following January, and they are for the CURRENT year's income while everything else on this page is about the year just ended.

What if the deadline has already passed?

Filing late is better than not filing. Failure-to-file penalties are generally calculated as a percentage of the balance owed, so a late return with no tax due usually carries no failure-to-file penalty — while an unfiled year never starts the three-year clock on IRS assessment, and stays open indefinitely. If several years are outstanding, the question stops being about deadlines and becomes which catch-up route applies.

Exact dates move year to year with weekends and holidays, so the timeline below is computed rather than approximated: when a due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a District of Columbia holiday it moves to the next working day, which is why the April date lands on the 18th in some years.