Gotta love international double-taxation agreements and whatnot! We don’t make enough for us to file! (It’s something like $76,000 a year that is untaxed for expats…and no, I make nowhere near that).
But I’m sitting here with another expat who is frantically filling out forms and sweating it because she worked half of last year Stateside…hee hee hee.
So, who’s going to be standing in line at the post-office until the wee hours tonight?
-Tcat
I won’t be standing in line, but I will drive-by on the way home from work. I wrote the accursed check this morning.
I got a kick out of my daughter’s bf this weekend - whining about how much was withheld from his minimum-wage paycheck. Just you wait, little boy - you have no idea what real withholdings are. None whatsoever…
I’m getting money back. I was late getting my information into my accountant though, but he says I won’t be penalized. (It’ll be just a few days late.) I always go to an accountant. I’m not messing with that stuff myself. Not that my taxes are complicated (they’re not) but I have a phobia about taxes.
Well, there’s been plenty a time when I was quite pissed off at my expat colleagues (meaning Brits, Yanks, Aussies, Kiwis, mostly) who were tax-exempt, payed an offshore flat rate, or in any other way, shape or form pretty much made a lot more net money than me just because they weren’t Dutch.
But don’t let that stop you. 
Anyways, my girlfriend can throw a double “Neener neener” right back at you: she got some money back after filling out all her forms, how about that?
Just to help daughter’s bf and everyone else put it all in perspective this tax-day morn:
Houston Chronicle, January 13, 2003
% Share of Income Average
Group Total Taxes Split Point Tax Rate
Top 1% 37.4 >$313,469 27.4%
Top 5% 56.5 >$128,336 24.4%
Top 10% 67.3 >$92,114 22.3%
Top 25% 84.0 >$55,225 19.1%
Top 50% 96.1 >$27,682 16.9%
Bottom 50% 3.9 <$27,682 4.6%
Those are U.S. numbers, I might add.
Yeah, but, the money she got back was because she paid too much during the year, correct?
Actually, I shouldn’t brag…I might be out of work in the next 4 days. It is make or break time for my fledgling business. Unfortunately, I’d give it a 50/50 chance right now that I’ll be selling the office furniture come May. The only plan I have right now for more work if this falls through is buskering magic tricks and balloon animals on Charles Bridge this summer…
-Tcat
The money she got back was because she was a student in 2002, and got a tax break.
27% taxes is the highest average rate??
Argh. My marginal rate is 50% over here, and there’s a top scale of 60%. Then again, we DO have stuff like health care, and no one lives below the UN poverty level here.
There’s a BIG difference between average and marginal rates. But I’ll live with it. Glad to here your honey got some back.
I’d say my average rate is about 42, 43% if that makes you feel better.
Hey Tomcat, even though you made less than the allowance ($80,000 this year), you still have to file the paperwork. You need form 2555-EZ and the standard 1040. The good news is that you have until around July to file it, so you aren’t late yet.
Filed via telephone. Took about 20 minutes to do my state & federal return. No waiting in long lines at the the post office for me.
And the best part…my yearly refund check.
Dammit, there’s another one of them tax-exempt 'Murrikens, stealing our precious EU jobs. 
Or did you have dual citizenship, kferr?
Well, yes, I DO feel better now.
I just wrote the checks. I owe, Federal, State and City taxes this year.
HeyColdfire don’t forget that in addition to Federal those of use in the US also have state and local and Social Security along with the costs of paying health care insurance and deductibles and copays. Toss in property taxes and we come out pretty close in total percentage of tax, in the medium income levels. We just don’t have those hopelessly punitive 50% plus tax brackets on the high end.
I had my accountant in Canada do my taxes and file them. I am expecting a gigundo return, and don’t pay anything in the US.
Tcat, hate to rain on your parade. You don’t have to file if you make less than the US minimum level. IIRC around 10k. However to qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, you do have to file, even though your income is less than IIRC USD86,000. I haven’t done my taxes yet since those abroad get an automatic 2 month extension.
Seriously, IINAAccountant, but I am pretty dang sure you have to file in order to qualify for the exclusion. 
Do you guys not get PAYE (Pay As You Earn) taxation? I’ve never filled out a tax return in my life - the government does it for me as I get paid.
Geez, I filed mine all the way back in the start of March and already got my refund and I still felt that I was being lazy about it. I’ll never understand people who actually wait till the last minute. My boss just called up and said she would be in late, she’s finishing up her taxes.
Hey, hey, hey! That 42% average I tossed out up there is just income tax as well! In addition, I pay property tax, house tax, road tax, dividend tax, capital tax, water tax, sewage tax… the list goes on, and I’m going to stop now before I get the urge to move to Monaco.