DCF and my tax returns

[Eva Hammel 0]

Hi there

im just starting the process of getting a green card for my husband ( I’m a dual citizen German/American, he’s German) we’ve been married for 4 months

I’ve been living and working in Germany for 5 years. They are asking for my US tax returns though, which I obviously don’t have

 

Do I need these or can I just give them my taxes that I filed here in Germany? 

Thanks!

[databit 328]

Apparently you did not know that US citizens are required to file taxes on all worldwide income, regardless of where they are residing. You will need to backfile those missing tax years as that's what USCIS wants.

[Eva Hammel 0]

Ah, no I did not! Thank you

[Illiria 980]

US citizens who earn over the minimum amount to be required to file taxes are required to file even when living overseas, there is a foreign overseas earnings exemption so even if required to file you most likely won’t owe any taxes. 

 

As above states you should file the taxes from the last five years where you earnt over the equivalent minimum earnings to be required to file using the irs exchange rate for each year to determine this equivalent amount in euros if that’s what you were paid in. 

 

A lot of Americans don’t realize this is required, I think America is like one of two or three countries to require it of their citizens so it’s not the norm. 

 

Go to the irs website and look at the forms for each year and it will have both the minimum filing earning amounts and the official exchange rate you have to use for each year you are filing as it is different each year. It’s a bit of a pain but once you have done one year it isn’t too bad to get the hang of, it might take a bit of searching to find all the bits you will need to do the calculations and where you need to send it to. I used to do this for my husband when he lived overseas.

Edited January 1, 2018 by Illiria
Additional info

[payxibka 10,047]

13 minutes ago, databit said:

Apparently you did not know that US citizens are required to file taxes on all worldwide income, regardless of where they are residing. You will need to backfile those missing tax years as that's what USCIS wants.

At a minimum they will need to prepare the returns to see if any US tax liability exists.  If no US tax liability exists then submission of a return is not required

[JFH 12,191]

*~*~*moved from "IR-1/CR-1 spouse visa" to "DCF"*~*~*

[CEE53147 559]

Or you can hire an international tax specialist in Germany to prepare your US returns.

[pyridine 12]

In addition to getting current with your taxes, you should also file FBARs (it's separate from tax returns) if you have ever had a foreign bank account that hit $10k or higher value at any time in the reporting year. I had a nightmare with this many many years ago when my ex and I discovered this requirement, as he had a bank account in his home country and had no idea he needed to file. We ended up hiring a tax lawyer who completely ripped us off (there are civil and criminal penalties that were seriously scary - they're reduced the civil penalty now to "only" $10k but that's still bad). You will want everything to be squeaky clean with all the US authorities before you begin this, so I would recommend having these done even if it's not required to show this anywhere. 

 

Fortunately they have made the process of filing delinquent FBARs a bit clearer now (it was really a black box when we did this, hence the lawyer) but it's always a small risk that they'll go after you for a penalty:

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/delinquent-fbar-submission-procedures

 

We did get away with filing quite a few years of them all at the same time late, with no penalty. I also filed one accidentally less than a month late a few years ago, now that I'm living abroad, but that was fine too.

[Italian_in_NYC 259]

Don't forget 6 years of FBARs.

I suggest you go for the streamlined procedure. No penalty assessed for a US citizen residing abroad. You will have to pay US taxes (if any) plus interest (if there is a tax liability).

Three years of tax returns and six years of FBARs will put you back into compliance.

[Mr_B 3]

It's not so bad. It would have been worse if you filed some FBARs and/or tax returns in the past but not all or not recently, in that case it's difficult to argue you didn't know about FBARs etc. 

You need to write a cover letter stating your ignorance to qualify for streamlining. Working in relatively high tax Germany as a middle class person, you're very unlikely to owe US taxes so the IRS will probably not give you a hard time. Don't attempt to do this yourself, hire an experienced CPA. Since you're doing DCF, don't waste any time...