Americans in the UK
You're a US citizen or Green Card holder living in the UK. You owe the IRS a return every year — and probably an FBAR — even though all your income is taxed in the UK.
The IRS doesn't stop knowing about you when you board the flight to Heathrow.
Living in the UK on a US passport puts you in one of the most paperwork-heavy categories of taxpayer in the world. The default rule — file every year regardless of where you live, regardless of what you owe — is the easy bit. The hard bit is the supporting cast: FBARs on UK current accounts, PFIC reporting on ISAs that are tax-free in the UK, treaty disclosures on pension contributions, and a foreign tax credit calculation that has to reconcile with your HMRC self-assessment. We do this version of the 1040 every season.
- Dual filing handled in lockstep — UK self-assessment and US 1040 reconciled, not done in isolation
- FEIE vs. FTC modelled on your actual numbers, not a default election
- ISAs, OEICs, and GIAs flagged for PFIC before they compound
- Pension contributions disclosed under the US-UK treaty so the treaty actually applies
- $10kFBAR threshold per aggregated UK account
- $126k2024 FEIE cap (revisited annually)
- Jun 15automatic extended filing deadline if abroad
- 37%PFIC excess-distribution rate without elections
What we look at first.
- Dual filing: UK self-assessment and US Form 1040 every year
- FEIE vs. Foreign Tax Credit — which is better for your mix of income?
- UK pensions (SIPP, workplace, state) and their US tax treatment
- ISAs and unit trusts triggering PFIC rules
- FBAR for UK current, savings, and joint accounts over $10k
The forms we’ll likely prepare.
- Form 1040 + state returns if applicable
- Form 2555 (FEIE) and/or Form 1116 (FTC)
- FinCEN 114 (FBAR) and Form 8938 (FATCA)
- Form 8621 for ISAs and UK funds
- Form 8833 for treaty positions on pensions
Four steps from intake to filed return.
- 01
Intake
30-minute scoping call — confirm UK residency, family setup, account list. We send a tailored document checklist before you upload anything.
- 02
Position read
FEIE vs. FTC modelled, PFIC exposure scanned, treaty positions identified — all before any return is drafted.
- 03
Prepare & reconcile
Draft the 1040 with FBAR, Form 8938, and PFIC reporting. Reconcile to your UK self-assessment so HMRC and IRS see consistent positions.
- 04
File & maintain
E-file with the IRS and FinCEN, send confirmations, track carry-forwards for next year.
The first year I filed with TaxStone they amended a return from two years prior — caught a foreign tax credit my old preparer had missed. The refund covered their fee for three years.
Common mistakes we see — and fix.
These are the four positions that most often get filed wrong before clients come to us. Sometimes it’s a prior preparer’s call we’d disagree with; sometimes it’s a default election that compounded for years. Either way, we work backwards through them before drafting your return.
- Defaulting to FEIE without modelling FTC alongside it
- Treating UK ISAs as if they're tax-free on the US side too
- Missing FBAR on joint accounts with a UK spouse
- Skipping Form 8833 disclosure on UK pension contributions
Three snapshots from our practice.
Anonymised, paraphrased, but representative — three of the shapes the work tends to take for americans in the uk.
8 years in LondonSoftware engineer with a UK SIPP, a stocks-and-shares ISA, and one US W-2 left over from a prior job. Annual 1040 with PFIC reporting and treaty disclosure on pension contributions.
Family returnJoint return with a UK-citizen spouse and two US-citizen children. FBAR aggregation across joint + sole accounts, Schedule B reconciled to Form 8938, five PFICs.
Tech founderCo-founded a UK Ltd while still on a US payroll. Form 5471 Category 5, GILTI calculation, §962 election to keep the US tax under the corporate rate.
See if americans in the uk describes your situation.
We'll confirm what you need to file — and just as importantly, what you don't.