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Didn't file IRS taxes for a decade, lived abroad, and had minimal US income. Can I file now without issues?
Didn't file IRS taxes for a decade, lived abroad, and had minimal US income. Can I file now without issues?
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Robert James, 20+ years of experience in IRS mattersAnswered on October 07,2023
If you are a US Citizen working abroad you probably still have a filing requirement, even though you may not owe any US income taxes. For example if you are single and made the equivalent of USD $12,950 in 2022 you would have a filing requirement.
The bigger Non-filing issue that can get people in trouble are the FBAR / FATCA filing requirements. If you are a US citizen and have more than USD $10,000 in foreign financial institutions during the year, you have a FBAR requirement.
Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
FATCA threshold depends on your filing status and where you live.
Summary of FATCA Reporting for U.S. Taxpayers
If you aren't planning on living in the US again, probably the worst thing that could happen is your US passport can get suspended or revoked for delinquent tax debt over a certain amount. I'm not sure how often that happens if you don't have US income.
There's a streamlined compliance procedure you can use to get caught up.
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