Taxes -
I have to confess, Tom and I haven’t filed our U.S. taxes since 2005. Actually, I don’t know of any other U.S. citizens here that do file their U.S. taxes while living here. Ever since I took “consumer math class” in high school from coach Mark Gillespie I have always done my own taxes. BTW, that class turned out to be one of the most helpful for my day-to-day adult life. Anyway, I used the EZ form during my high school and college days then the 1040EZ after getting a teaching job, then gradually moved up to the more complex 1040s after acquiring a husband, a mortgage, dependents (we sometimes had nieces or nephews living with us),Tom’s tuition and medical bills.
Every year I would reread the new tax manual to bone up on old info and to learn the new material that pertained to my new situation. I learned how to order an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) for Tom while he was in America on a student visa. He didn’t have a social security number yet (two years later he received his residency card and S.S. number and 3 years after that he received his citizenship certificate. Umm, I did all that paperwork myself also. No lawyers needed, thank you). That was 1999. If it had been 1995 we couldn’t have filed under “married filing jointly” because the IRS didn’t start giving out these for-tax-purposes-only numbers until 1996. We’ve always filed on time and paid and paid and paid. Sometimes I would take the envelope to the post office around 11pm on April 15th. Many post offices in the Metroplex were open till midnight on that special night. The police, in their yellow coats and flashlights, had the roads lined with orange cones and were redirecting traffic to help the thousands of procrastinators get that envelope stamped before midnight. Postal worker would be in the street at the head of each line of cars and take our envelope through our open driver’s side window, stamp it, throw it into the box and yell, “NEXT”! Most of us procrastinators had waited until the last minute because we didn’t want to part with our money any sooner than we had to. I also didn’t use Turbo Tax or the online tax services because I didn’t want to pay any more than I needed to. Well, I didn’t file taxes during my first five years in Korea. I didn’t legally need to since I didn’t make over the $75,000.00 required to do so when living abroad. But we expatriates are still “encouraged” to do so just in case we or Uncle Sam needs the record. The only problem that it caused me was when I returned to America and I applied for a loan to buy a car and my credit history was totally blank (I had been in college before Korea). The car loan officer said, “You could qualify since you showed me a contract of your teaching job but I think I need to disqualify you because it looks like you went through bankruptcy since your record is totally blank.” I showed him my very busy passport and my contracts from Korea so he loosened up and approved my loan. So, here we are again. I really should have started filing since we returned to Korea since Tom does make over the $82,400 (new minimum) required to file. But I figured since we’re filing “married filing jointly” and I don’t officially work, then we don’t make double that together, but that’s just my supposition. I haven’t had the energy to read the new material for this new era of my life; “married, filing jointly, living abroad, spouse making over the minimum, sold a house, lost money in maintaining the house, supporting in-laws, have a new baby, etc”. I asked the U.S. embassy for a contact number for somebody who does taxes for Americans. They gave me one. I called. He said he charges $300 per year. I Have 3 years to do (and next month another one). He’s not even a C.P.A. He just charges that amount because he can. I said, “Thanks, but no thanks, I’ll try to do it myself”. The hoped-for stimulus payment won’t even cover that. Okay, so that’s what I’m in the process of doing. We finally took Tom’s parents to get their passports copied and notarized (for $75) to apply for ITIN numbers for them so we can add them as dependents. I collected Tom’s w-2-type forms. I’ll lose out on my Texas house maintenance and sale loss deductions because that matter was such a mess that I don’t have all of the records. I’m not looking forward to reading through all the new info about filing while living abroad and how to adjust accordingly with how much we paid in taxes to the host country and what not. Wish me luck and a lengthy attention span.
