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Kondor Tax & Accounting  ·  Services

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US tax returns for people whose lives cross a border.

Americans living abroad still file. Foreign nationals working here on a visa often have to. Both situations have rules of their own, and both are handled personally by the same person who handles everything else — not passed to a department.

On this page

This is a small part of the practice and we would rather say so than imply a department. We have clients in the Philippines, in Denmark, in Argentina, in Brazil, and in China. There are not many of them, and each one is handled personally — which, for work where a wrong detail is expensive, is the point.

Living abroad

I am a US citizen living abroad. Do I still have to file?


Yes. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, and a return is generally still due even when no tax turns out to be owed. Most people find this out from a letter or a friend, some years in.

The two tools that keep the tax bill sensible are the foreign earned income exclusion, which removes a substantial amount of wages or self-employment income earned abroad from US tax if you meet its residence tests, and the foreign tax credit, which offsets tax you already paid to the country you live in. Which one applies, and whether both do, depends on how you earn and where you pay — and choosing wrongly between them can cost real money in later years, so it is worth deciding on purpose.

We prepare these returns, and we do the planning that goes with them: which exclusion to claim, what happens to a foreign pension, how a business you run abroad is reported here.

Working here

I am in the US on a visa. What do I file?


It depends on whether the tax rules treat you as a resident or a nonresident for the year, which is not the same question as your immigration status. The answer turns mostly on how many days you have spent in the country, with some visa types counted differently. From there it is either an ordinary resident return or a nonresident return, and the two report different income and allow different deductions.

We prepare both. If a taxpayer identification number is needed for someone on your return who cannot get a Social Security number, we obtain it as part of preparing the return — we do not offer that as a standalone service.

This page is written for people who came to the United States to work — on a work visa, a transfer, a research or teaching position — and found that the tax side was nobody's job to explain.

Asked often

Can you handle my situation?


The questions that arrive before anyone hires us for this are competence checks, and fair ones. The honest answers:

  • Do you do the foreign earned income exclusion and the foreign tax credit? Yes, and the choice between them.
  • I have a pension from the country I was born in. Can you deal with it? Yes. How it is taxed here depends on the country and on any treaty, and we will look at that rather than guess.
  • I am a US citizen with a business, or income, abroad. Can you help? Yes.
  • I am here on a visa and nobody told me I had to file. Can you help? Yes, including the years that were missed.
  • I have ties to Canada. Can you help? Yes, with the US side. We prepare US returns for people with Canadian ties, whether that is a Canadian living here or an American living there. We do not prepare Canadian returns. For those you will want a Canadian preparer, and we are glad to work alongside one.
Where we are careful

What we handle case by case.


Some international situations are genuinely complex — foreign investments, foreign trusts, and the reporting that goes with holding assets abroad. We do not list those as a service, because a wrong detail there is worse than no help at all. What we do is look at your specific situation, tell you whether it is something we can handle well, and say so plainly if it is not. Where it needs additional research, we will say that too, before you commit to anything.

We would rather lose a client to the right specialist than keep one with a return we are not confident in.

How it works

Working with us from another country.


The same way a client in another state does — documents through the secure portal, a review by video or phone at an hour that works in your time zone, electronic signatures. Nothing sensitive by email. There is more on the mechanics on the virtual and nationwide page.

All work is performed locally and in house, in Vancouver, Washington, by the person you speak with. Your file does not go anywhere you have not been told about.

Fees are quoted in writing after the introductory call, once we know what the return involves. See our fees page for where they begin.

Tell us where you are and what you have.

A short call is enough to say whether your situation is one we handle, and to say so plainly if it is not.

Book a free consultation

No engagement, no obligations. Or call (360) 217-9970.