Comparison · updated monthly
Online Taxman is a boutique US-CPA firm for expats and businesses. It's a done-for-you service — there's no self-serve product and no free draft.
Online Taxman presents CPA-led expat and business tax services; verify its current credentials, scope, and quote directly. Atamatax is self-serve software with flat per-package pricing: supported on-screen PFIC calculations are free and draft-package generation is paid.
Who Online Taxman is for
Online Taxman fits expats who want a real CPA to handle everything for them — especially business owners with foreign corporations, complex multi-year situations, or anyone who'd rather hand it off than touch a form. If you want a human to own the return end to end, that's their genuine strength.
Where each sits
Products in different categories are not better or worse than each other; they are for different returns. The category that matches your situation is the one to compare inside.
Online Taxman
General expat preparation
A preparer or a workflow built for Americans abroad across the common forms — 2555, 1116, FBAR, 8938 — with foreign funds handled as an add-on.
Atamatax
Complex foreign-investment workflow
Import the foreign portfolio, identify the PFICs, compute the allocation per holding and per year, reconstruct missing basis, and produce the workpapers.
Professional handoff
The analysis packaged for an accountant to file from — classification with its reason, worksheets per holding, threshold arithmetic, an assumption log.
Self-serve tax software
You enter the figures and file the return yourself; the software computes the forms it supports.
Side-by-side
Delivery model
- Atamatax
- Self-serve software you drive yourself.
- Online Taxman
- Done-for-you preparation by a CPA.
Pricing
- Atamatax
- $299 / $499 / $799 flat per return, shown upfront.
- Online Taxman
- Quote-based / per-service; varies by complexity.
Free on-screen summary before paying
- Atamatax
- Yes — see computed draft numbers before purchasing the package.
- Online Taxman
- No free draft; engagement starts on quote acceptance.
Form 8621 (PFIC)
- Atamatax
- Built-in; up to 25 per return.
- Online Taxman
- Handled by the CPA as part of the engagement.
FBAR + FATCA (Form 8938)
- Atamatax
- Generated in the same flow.
- Online Taxman
- Prepared by the firm.
Treaty positions (Form 8833)
- Atamatax
- Dedicated FR / UK / DE / CA / AU desks.
- Online Taxman
- Handled case-by-case by a CPA.
Turnaround speed
- Atamatax
- Same-session draft; generate the package on your schedule.
- Online Taxman
- Depends on firm capacity and back-and-forth.
Business / foreign-corp complexity
- Atamatax
- Refers complex cases to independent CPAs.
- Online Taxman
- Core strength — CPAs handle business filings.
Human CPA judgement on edge cases
- Atamatax
- Software; refers truly complex cases out.
- Online Taxman
- Real CPAs on every return.
Each row states what the two products do as of September 2026. We update this page when their offering changes — tell us if it's out of date.
Two Atamatax product lines appear in this table. Self-serve software for one tax year — $299 (no PFICs), $499 (up to 25 Forms 8621) and $799 (treaty positions) — and the Streamlined catch-up preparation tiers at $1,590–$2,990+, which are quoted in writing after a free scope check and prepared with you. They are different services at different prices.
Online Taxman pricing
Online Taxman quotes each engagement rather than publishing a price list, so this page names no figure for it: the cost depends on the forms, the years and the entities in your case, and the quote is what you compare. A comparison that printed a number here would be guessing.
Atamatax's prices are published and flat: $299 for a return without PFICs, $499 with up to 25 Forms 8621, $799 with treaty positions — per tax year, paid when you generate the package after seeing the draft. Streamlined catch-up preparation is quoted in writing after a free eligibility check.
Which one fits which reader
A US person abroad with a foreign brokerage, a handful of non-US funds and filed returns has a self-serve case: the PFIC classification, the per-holding Form 8621 computation and the FBAR / Form 8938 thresholds are what Atamatax computes on screen before any payment.
A US person who owns a foreign corporation, runs a business abroad, or wants a CPA to own the return end to end has the case Online Taxman is built for. Atamatax refers that work to an independent CPA.
Bottom line
Atamatax is the self-serve foreign-account and PFIC workflow: you enter the data, it computes and generates the package, and you file. Foreign-business forms and a full-service preparer are what Online Taxman sells; verify its current services, reviewer, timing, and fees directly.
Before choosing either
Check the facts the price depends on
- Is my fund a PFIC?Screens a fund or ETF by ISIN or domicile — the count of PFICs is what a per-form price turns on.Free · no signup
- PFIC filing cost calculatorWhat Form 8621 preparation is likely to cost from your holdings and years, to set beside a per-form quote.Free · no signup
- US expat tax calculatorWhich forms your year actually needs, and an outlook on the tax — the list the price on either side should be quoted against.Free · no signup
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Online Taxman cost?#
- Online Taxman prices per engagement on a quote, and publishes no fixed price list that this page can cite. Ask them for a written quote that names the forms and years it covers, then compare it with a flat package price for the same scope.
- Is Online Taxman a CPA firm?#
- Its site presents CPA-led tax services for expats and businesses. Verify the credentials of the person who will sign your return directly with them before engaging, as you would with any preparer.
- Online Taxman or Atamatax for PFICs and Form 8621?#
- If the return is otherwise straightforward and the complexity is the foreign funds, Atamatax computes each Form 8621 on screen for free and includes up to 25 in the PFIC package. If the PFICs sit inside a foreign company, a trust or a multi-year problem you want handled for you, a full-service preparer such as Online Taxman is the fit.
How this comparison was made
- Competitor facts come from Online Taxman's own published pages — the price list, the plan descriptions, the forms list — and are linked under Sources where a public page exists. Where a price is quoted per case, the table says so rather than guessing a number.
- Online Taxman publishes its pricing per engagement rather than as a list, so the table describes the model and quotes no figure.
- Atamatax's prices are rendered from the pricing configuration the checkout uses, so the table cannot show a price the product does not charge.
- Rows describe scope, not quality: no cell is marked as a winner, and the bottom line says who is better served by the other product.
Out of date? Tell us and the row is re-read. Atamatax pricing · Comparison methodology and index
Sources
Compare on your own situation
Which Atamatax package would your return actually need?
A few questions name the forms, the package and the price for your year — then the comparison above is about you, not about a generic expat.
Or skip the questions: the on-screen draft is free and you pay when you generate the package — start my return.