Back Taxes, Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

[CarolynRitesh 0]

Hello!

Last year I submitted 3 years worth of back-taxes for the I-864 prep claiming the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion as I was wayyy below the limits for each year. Recently, a friend told me that even if you can exclude all your Foreign Earned Income for tax purposes, you are still liable to pay SS and Medicare taxes. I am hoping that someone out there can clarify this for me... HELP!

A little more background information:

Work was done in India, for an Indian employer. Taxes were paid to the Indian govt., including to a 'Provident Fund' which is like a retirement account through the govt. with deductions from self and matching from employer.

Does anyone have any information about this, or could anyone point me to the documents on the IRS website? I have tried searching, but nothing seems to quite fit this situation...

Thanks for your help!

[payxibka 10,047]

Hello!

Last year I submitted 3 years worth of back-taxes for the I-864 prep claiming the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion as I was wayyy below the limits for each year. Recently, a friend told me that even if you can exclude all your Foreign Earned Income for tax purposes, you are still liable to pay SS and Medicare taxes. I am hoping that someone out there can clarify this for me... HELP!

A little more background information:

Work was done in India, for an Indian employer. Taxes were paid to the Indian govt., including to a 'Provident Fund' which is like a retirement account through the govt. with deductions from self and matching from employer.

Does anyone have any information about this, or could anyone point me to the documents on the IRS website? I have tried searching, but nothing seems to quite fit this situation...

Thanks for your help!

Unless somehow it is deemed self-employment income... Otherwise I say would say it is not subject to...

[CarolynRitesh 0]

That was my understanding of it too, but lordy, the IRS can be quite a maze to sort through! If anyone else has any knowledge or experience with this, please share!

[MargotDarko 0]

Your friend is definitely misinformed. I filed two years of tax returns while living in the UK and I was able to exclude all my income. I was not liable to pay for anything stateside.

[Frank & Kim 0]

I have been in the same boat, filing six years of back taxes on my Canadian income.

There were no obligations like the ones you suggest. I think the person who gave you that information was misinformed.

[loz9 0]

I filed two years of taxes when I lived in Australia and owed nothing as all my income was excluded. Good luck!

[kaffy 2]

I agree with the above posters. My husband lived out of the US for 4 yrs and filed taxes each of these years. Because his income was under the "foreign earned exemption limit" (or something), he wasn't liable to pay any taxes.