Will Form 8865 Expat 2023-2024

Okay, hi. This is Mike Mertz. I'm talking to you from Cebu in the Philippines today. And today's topic is 2555, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about that in this short video. So, every expat knows a couple of things when they come overseas and start to work. They know that they get some type of expat income exclusion, and they can work up to earn up to that amount. And they don't have to pay US tax on that. Usually, they don't know the exact amount, they just say under a hundred thousand dollars. And usually, they also think they don't have to file if they make under that amount. Which is completely wrong because the act of filing the return is how you actually claim the exclusion. So, the IRS could possibly disallow the exclusion and make you file anyway if they audited you. And you would pay taxes on that foreign income just like you lived in the US, even though you were making it overseas if you didn't claim that exclusion through a timely filed return. So, all expats also know that you can't stay in the US for over 30 days. So, that's the two things every expat usually knows about their US taxes: that they can earn under a hundred thousand dollars and not pay income tax, and that they shouldn't stay in the US over 30 days. So, I get clients saying to me, "Well, I'm going to stay in America for 31 days. Am I going to have a problem? How much tax do I have to pay?" So, this is kind of a lack of understanding of your 2555 form in the tax return, which is where you claim the exclusion. So, there are two ways to be considered an expat. One...