Seeking Tax Software Recommendation for US Expats

Taiwan Where Can I Find...?
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What tax software/website/service do you use to file US tax returns as an expat?

I believe my 2023 tax situation might be more complex than most - I didn’t have earned income, however I own rental property in the US, have Schedule K-1’s, 1099-INT’s, 1099-DIV’s, did Roth conversion, and also received a small inheritance from a non-US relative that exceeds the FATCA reporting threshold for US residents.

I used FreeTaxUSA for 2022, which worked fine, but it isn’t really intended to be used by expats (not supporting foreign address, etc.). I used TurboTax when I lived in the US. Just wondering what everyone uses and what would you recommend?

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Do you know of any free tax software that supports foreign addresses?

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You can find a few in this article:

I am sure TurboTax can do all the things I need to do, but they want $103.20 for federal-only, plus $64 for each state (I have Schedule K-1’s from multiple states). I am too cheap to pay that… I was going to try olt.com, but I need to file Form 3520, which they don’t support… I might end up going with TurboTax…

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It looks like TurboTax also does not support Efile with Form 3520. In that case, I might as well try olt.com, and file Form 3520 separately through the IRS website.

I am putting all the information about expat tax filing that I have gathered here just in case others are faced with the same issues in the future.

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I used OLT but beginning this year to get to their website you need to use a VPN. Otherwise the website is unreachable.

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You’re not too cheap. You just don’t like being ripped off by the tax preparation service industry like millions of other Americans. I don’t know of any other country we’re citizens are often forced to use these services in order to pay their taxes. And they maintain their stranglehold on us by lobbying congress. Hopefully they will go the way of the real estate bullshit that was recently exposed and the student loan rip off that banks benefited from for many years. Of course we’re still stuck with the health insurance mess and probably plenty of other scams.

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I have not been able to find places to enter Schedule K-1’s with OLT. H&R Block wants additional $99 for filing Schedule K-1, so I am back to using FreeTaxUSA and filing as if I am living in the US… Among all the low-cost/free Tax software I have tried, I find FreeTaxUSA to be the best.

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I’ve been using myexpattaxes.com the past few years. Their app is pretty polished, it’s like Turbotax but geared towards people living abroad.

You would need to pay for the second tier for Schedule K-1, but that’s going to be relatively common since you are talking about reporting shares in a company.

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