Yesterday was tax day in America. If you’re an American you should be filing your taxes every year, but luckily for you if you haven’t figured it out you get an automatic extension til June 15. So this is a good reminder to get on that. 

Many Americans living overseas end up paying little in taxes because of the the foreign earned income exclusion, which allows you to exclude up to $92,900 of foreign earned income from your US taxes. You also can get credit for taxes you pay in China and for some housing costs associated with living abroad. 

We’ve filed every year that we’ve been in China. The first time we used a tax guy in the states, but for the last three years we’ve filed on out own. This year Taxes for Expats approached us about helping with our tax filing. We decided since it’s been a while it would a good idea to have some experts look over our stuff. We said that we’d mention them on the blog if we were happy with the service, and we were, so if you’re looking for someone that knows about taxes for Americans living overseas check those guys out. The process for us was very quick and easy. It might be a bit pricey for some people, but it is nice to know that your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. They also have lots of articles relating to tax issues and questions that expats may have. 

The one thing that surprised us the first time filing in China was finding out that we were still liable for some Social Security and Medicare taxes because Kara was self-employed, teaching for an American family in China. Even if you live, work, and earn your money in China if you’re a US citizen you should still be paying self-employment taxes.

I’m not a tax expert by any means, but if you have questions, ask in the comments. I’ll probably point you somewhere with better information. 

photo credit: John-Morgan via photopin cc