So I need to have a little interlude before I get back to my adventures from last weekend.
First and least serious, while I was in Paris a friend took my used clothing to the second hand store I made an appointment with back in September, and apparently none of it was good enough because they didn't take any of my clothes. Not a huge disappointment, but definitely a bummer since I've let the clothes take up space the living room because I thought I was going to make maybe 50€ from selling 7 or 8 things. When I found out my trip to Paris conflicted with the appointment with the store I also stressed for a couple days until I found someone who could take my stuff for me, and now that I know they didn't want any of it, I could have just blown it off instead of contacting practically everyone I know in Toulouse to ask if they were free last Friday afternoon.
Next, and more seriously, my parents are currently paying my student loans with the idea that once I get a job I'll be able to send them money for the payments. My mom has been out of a job for a while though and has recently had difficulty making payments, so she asked if I could fill out the Income Based Repayment paperwork since I earn so little it would mean really reduced payments, at least while I'm unemployed. The problem is that I have to provide a copy of my tax return. And I, um, kinda never got around to filing one? I posted about why here. So I guess I need to file late. But I'm still undecided about whether or not to declare for the States that I'm married.* It seems like if I declare separately (which I would do since B's income is not taxable in the States anyway), B's income would not be considered for calculating my income-based repayment plan, but I'm not 100% sure.
I also am not sure where to start with filing a late tax return from abroad. I don't know if should contact the IRS office at the Embassy in Paris, or the international tax payer office in Pennsylvania. There's also the exchange rate issue: my unemployment checks from 2008 are worth more dollars now because the dollar has lost value. But do I really want to calculate how many dollars my checks were worth in June 2008? Will it make my loan repayments lower, or not really change them at all? I probably didn't earn enough for the exchange rate fluctuations to make much of a difference.
But on a brighter note, it looks like I might finally be able to do an internship at Airbus and I'll hopefully soon hear back from the company I've interviewed with several times. At least I'll have a paid internship if the job doesn't come through, which is always good.
*Q: If you apply for a Green Card for a spouse, do you have to provide previous American tax returns? That would be a hiccup if one day we move to the States and I have to show tax returns that say I'm single after our marriage.
4 comments:
Don't Americans living abroad got an automatic extension anyway? Not till December, but they might be kind of understanding about the situation, just say when you did the thing online it said not to file so you didn't.
And if the problem is still needing the tax code for B, then get it, because you never know what could happen and you wouldn't want to be "stuck" in France for something like forgetting your taxes. As usual, it will be lots of paperwork for not such a big thing in the end. So bon courage! Hopefully it's worth it for you and your parents.
I stumbled on your blog and as a long-term married expat, here is some info: It's super easy to file late taxes. If you have no tax liability (don't owe them, which you don't), you can file late taxes for up to 5 years with no penalty. Go to IRS.gov, all you need to do is fill out a 1040 and a 2555 or 2555EZ for 2008, which you can get under 'prior year forms' on the IRS site. You just write in how much you made on the 2555, so it's up to you which rate you use. I would use the old rate, or just estimate.
As for the marital status, you should probably choose 'married filing separately' so only your income will count. where they leave room for the number, just write in that your spouse is a foreign national residing abroad without a tax ID. You can also attach a letter stating the same, but it's no big deal. Most people I know just write in 'none available - foreign national'. Honestly, the IRS doesn't care about small potatoes like us.
When reporting foreign income, you're supposed to use the exchange rate that was valid the day that you received your salary. But I'm sure they don't actually check it, so you can just give rough estimates.
Thanks for the comments!
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