Prior to leaving the states and moving to South Korea for the second time I had to do what all Americans do every year...their taxes. I recently read someones post who asked if they had to pay taxes if teaching in South Korea. Because of my almost waste of money incident I've decided to post information about completing your taxes. Unlike any other year where I would routinely go online, pay 50-60 bucks (maybe more) and then of course wait for my mulah or angrily send the IRS a check; I had to do things differently this time around. Being the responsible human being I am, I grabbed a phone book and started making calls to not only make an appointment, but to also see how much filing foreign income would cost. It took a while, but in the end I went with H&R Block who happily charged me $250. I went to the appointment and by the end Tanya said I owed ~$2,000 for federal taxes and ~$500 for state taxes. I stared at her blankly and kindly replied, "Excuse me?!?!" I raised a few questions, but she just went on to lecture me about being an American citizen and how everyone must pay taxes. Um...duh.
After these exciting two hours I went home and frantically looked up information. I also spoke with a friend who is currently teaching in South Korea as well and who is basically brilliant unless it comes to deciding whether or not hot chocolate is a sweet. She lead me in the right direction and what do you know?!?! I found information that excludes me from paying taxes. Tanya and I spoke the next day and everything was changed free of charge. Ok, well not necessarily free of charge. She just didn't charge me for the new forms being used. After everything was completed I asked how much this would cost if everything was done correctly the first time. Can you take a guess? About $450 so be prepared to either pay some money or try and complete this yourself. I personally didn't have time or the desire, but if you can more power to ya!
Remember, this only applies to you if you worked/lived in another country for a tax year. There are other requirements so please follow the link to the IRS webpage to read all requirements for the exclusion. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p54/ch04.html
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