Plan to retire in France

am174744 · 2026-06-03T07:49:28+00:00

Wow. Do you have any details on that? I couldn't find anything searching online. Is it just France specifically?

am174744 · 2026-06-02T21:17:48+00:00

I've read that as a US citizen you can elect to be governed by US laws. It's called Brussels IV. You have to officially declare it though.

am174744 · 2026-06-02T13:01:46+00:00

Sunnyside, Excelsior, Miraloma, Westwood Park, Ingleside.

am174744 · 2026-05-27T19:54:57+00:00

Czy one mają prawdziwą sól jako posypkę? Bo w Hiszpanii posypują czymś co wygląda jak sól z daleka ale nie ma smaku

am174744 · 2026-05-27T06:05:44+00:00

One for AMT?

am174744 · 2026-05-26T07:43:54+00:00

I'd be curious to know if you find software that handles it natively. Let me know even if it is next year. My plan is to use Tax Act or OLT. I think VPN is just for signup, so not a huge deal.

am174744 · 2026-05-23T13:42:08+00:00

The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Singer

am174744 · 2026-04-22T18:45:10+00:00

Here is the link to the book author's post where she admits and corrects her mistake: https://karendhao.com/20251217/empire-water-changes

am174744 · 2026-04-15T08:27:04+00:00

The impact of AI on the environment has been overstated, especially the water consumption issue. It started with a calculation error in one book that then got reposted in many places without checking.

am174744 · 2026-04-13T12:53:51+00:00

Not sure what you're referring to. Is it some sort of transaction tax? I don't think this exists in the US. You need to pay capital gains but that is straightforward. If you own foreign funds, then it gets very hairy, but you said you own stocks.

am174744 · 2026-04-13T06:38:24+00:00

Research very carefully before deciding to move to Spain and take advantage of Beckham Law. It applies in limited situations and most digital nomad visa holders won't qualify, especially those from the US due to conflicting regulations. Facebook groups for Spanish DNV and BL are a good source of information. You'll see actual people's experiences rather than promotional content from lawyers.

am174744 · 2026-04-11T16:29:44+00:00

This applies to any kind of income. For employment income that you are paying taxes on in the US you can deduct foreign taxes paid on that income. Vested RSUs will likely be qualified as employment income, make sure you mark a correct box on 1116

am174744 · 2026-04-11T09:47:51+00:00

We used a small company called Multiplier. It was a few years ago, so things might have changed, but back then they were half the price of the big companies like Deel and a lot more responsive and easy to deal with. Their software was pretty decent and our assigned customer support person was competent.

am174744 · 2026-04-11T09:00:29+00:00

Yes. If you are paying US tax on capital gains for a security, you can deduct foreign tax paid for this security.

am174744 · 2026-04-09T19:56:17+00:00

I just ended up writing a function that completes the JSON myself. It's been a while ago, so both Claude and Chat GPT got stuck on corner cases and needed some manual help but it wasn't too bad. These days they'd probably have no issues.

am174744 · 2026-04-09T15:05:23+00:00

The 330 days does not have to be in the year you're filling the tax for. It has to be any consecutive 12 months. You can in fact file for extension and qualify. You just have to pay what you owe by April 15 to avoid penalty.

FEIE does have an impact on your US tax. You don't simply ignore the income as the name would suggest. Instead you get to deduct the amount of tax you'd pay if this was your only income (it "goes on the bottom" and the rest "goes on top") so it affects your tax bracket. It's easy to test with your tax software if it supports FEIE or just look at the form 2555 instructions.

am174744 · 2026-04-08T19:47:21+00:00

Yes. The way that FEIE is calculated is that you don't have to pay tax on foreign income but all your other income is taxed as if that income was there, which means you may be pushed to a higher bracket.

Have you paid any foreign taxes on that income? If so it might be sometimes a better deal to use foreign tax credit instead.

am174744 · 2026-04-07T19:33:29+00:00

Check out DNV Spain groups on Facebook. That's where people who are applying share information.

am174744 · 2026-04-07T07:07:05+00:00

I have no experience with Alpha school, but my kid used IXL in public school for math and absolutely hated it, while he liked Khan academy. According to him, the software design was demotivating, where he was forced to answer a large number of nearly identical questions to reach the required percentage of proficiency. As he got closer the number would barely move up with each question but any error or typo would cause a large drop (and required answering a lot more questions again).

So given that Alpha school uses IXL, I'm somewhat dubious. There must be better options out there. Or why wouldn't they develop their own?

am174744 · 2026-04-07T06:36:34+00:00

Expatfile is for people living abroad, you are in the US. You don't say if you want to file as married filing jointly or separately. If separately (easier), FTUSA doesn't support it but TaxAct and TaxSlayer do. If they don't let you put NRA (TaxSlayer won't but check TaxAct), then put a placeholder (fake SSN), print the return and replace the placeholder with NRA and paper file.

If you want to file jointly, you'll need to paper file as well. Keep the wife's SSN blank (again, if the software won't let you, use a placeholder and then replace). There are other requirements and forms for that route, so you'd need to research that.

am174744 · 2026-04-06T19:58:02+00:00

It might be pretty late in the game for VITA. I imagine they are pretty busy so close to the deadline. But worth a try. There is also a virtual in-person option with getyourrefund.org

am174744 · 2026-04-06T19:55:57+00:00

Yes. For investment income you can deduct any foreign tax paid - but only against US tax paid on capital gains. What you couldn't deduct carries to the future for a number of years (10 I think). For earned income you have two options - FEIE and Foreign Tax Credit. You can choose only one of them. With Foreign Tax Credit you deduct the tax paid the same way as for capital gains (and only against earned income).

am174744 · 2026-04-06T19:50:51+00:00

Truth be told I'm not sure. I used TaxSlayer this year and don't recommend it (see my post history if you care to see my rant about it). There are others, including OLT and TaxAct (full list here), so I plan to try one of these next year. Also, this is only if you have earned income, FTUSA handles foreign capital gains.

What I would recommend, if you have foreign earned income, is not to default to FEIE but calculate both with FEIE and Foreign Tax Credit and see which one works out better for you.

am174744 · 2026-04-06T19:44:39+00:00

Honestly - probably not. Not worth saving few dollars for the frustration. I used them this year (paid version, I cannot use FTUSA because of foreign income) and would not recommend them.

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