First time filing US Income Taxes as an expat

[MikeyD]

I have been using H&R Block software to file my US income taxes for several years.  I retired this year and have been living in Cebu since late June.  I’m not sure if the H&R Block software will meet my needs this year but wanted to download it and see how far I can get with it but for some reason, their website is declining my debit and credit cards.  It has gotten me to thinking that perhaps I should look for software that is geared to US expats.  Does anyone have any recommendations or personal experience with filing their US Income Taxes as an expat with DIY type software?  Does anyone have any recommendations for US Income Tax filing services in case I find it too complicated this year?

[Lee]

Look into doing simple tax returns that can be filed with Forms 1040 or 1040A yourself.

I have done this for over 40 years and find the process quite simple. IMO tax software is stupidly complicated and often leads to mistakes.

[Ram1957]

TurboTax has a good program and been using them for 10 years from the Philippines and no problems.

[Gator]

As @Ram1957mentioned Turbo Tax is a good program. Tax Slayer is also good, especially if your return is a bit complicated (like for small businesses owners). It’s what I’ve used for years and filed many times from the Phils. Might help if you use a VPN when paying so the program thinks you’re still in the USA. 

[Mike J]

TaxAct dot com is also good.  

[OnMyWay]

I have been using OLT for the past few years without problems.  My taxes are fairly simple now.  It was one recommended on the IRS website.  It is free for most people.

[MikeyD]

Thanks for all of the feedback.  I worked in IT for 44 years and sometimes I hate technology.  I decided to try Turbo Tax this year and it kept telling me online that I needed to enable Javascript and cookies in order to create an account.  I tried 2 different browsers which both had these enabled with no success.  I also tried with and without 2 different VPNs.  I finally tried Safari on my iPhone and it let me create an account with no problems and then I was able to purchase the software online on my laptop.  In retrospect, maybe that’s all I needed to do for H&R Block.  Who knows, things like this make me very tired these days.  I just want to get things done and don’t want to jump through unnecessary hoops.  Yeah, I know that's not always possible with things in the Philippines but just simply purchasing software online should not be that complicated. 

Anyway I was able to download the software and start a return.  Right off the bat it asked me where I lived at the end of 2023 and included a foreign country option so I guess it will hopefully ask me all of the right questions to file my first expat US Income Tax return without issues.  I know I could probably do this without software but at this point my brain is very tired and I feel like assistance would be helpful this year. 

On a side note, I still don’t feel like I’ve retired yet, this year has been very busy both before retiring from work and then moving to Cebu and all of the activities we have done after that trying to get settled.  Hopefully next year will feel more like retirement at some point.

[baronapart]

On 12/6/2023 at 2:47 AM, MikeyD said:

 Who knows, things like this make me very tired these days.  On a side note, I still don’t feel like I’ve retired yet, this year has been very busy both before retiring from work and then moving to Cebu and all of the activities we have done after that trying to get settled.  Hopefully next year will feel more like retirement at some point.

I retired last year. Things are just starting to settle out. I feel your pain, brother.