◉ Who we help
Green Card holders abroad
A Green Card keeps you 'in the US tax net' for the IRS — even when you live permanently in the UK. Long-term Green Card holders who eventually give up status may also face exit tax.
Why this matters
Eight years of Green Card status changes the rules. Plan around it, not after it.
A Green Card creates US tax obligations identical to a US citizen — you file every year, on worldwide income, with FBAR and FATCA on top. The added wrinkle for long-term Green Card holders living abroad is the exit tax: once you cross 8 years of Green Card status (counted in any 15-year window), surrendering the card triggers a mark-to-market 'sale' of your worldwide assets unless you fall under specific exceptions. The decision to give up status, and the timing of it, have material tax consequences — and most people don't realise the clock is running.
- Annual 1040 + FBAR + FATCA on the same footing as citizens
- Long-term-resident threshold tracked from your card-issued date
- Pre-surrender planning if exit-tax exposure is real
- Form 8854 prepared correctly when it's time to relinquish
8 yrs
Green Card status that triggers exit-tax exposure
$2m
net-worth covered-expatriate threshold
$190k
average-tax covered-expatriate threshold (2024)
5 yrs
of compliance required to avoid covered status
Most Green Card holders we work with don't realise the long-term-resident clock is running. Eight years on the card — counted in any 15-year window — is the line that triggers exit-tax exposure on surrender.
Key issues
What we look at first.
- Ongoing Form 1040 filing while Green Card is valid
- Exit tax risk once you become a long-term resident (8+ years)
- Form 8854 when the card is relinquished
Typical filings
The forms we’ll likely prepare.
- ✓Form 1040, FEIE/FTC
- ✓FBAR and Form 8938
- ✓Form 8854 if expatriating
How we work with you
Four steps from intake to filed return.
01
Status review
Confirm Green Card start date, count years against the long-term threshold, and identify any years that don't count (treaty residency claims, non-resident years).
02
Exposure read
Net-worth and tax-history check against covered-expatriate thresholds. Surface any 5-year compliance gaps.
03
Plan or file
If surrender is on the horizon, build the runway — gifting, basis step-ups, account restructuring. If not, file the annual return as if every year matters, because for the eventual exit calculation, it does.
04
Annual maintenance
Track ongoing US tax exposure, FBAR / 8938 obligations, and document any treaty-residency positions that pause the long-term clock.
Held a Green Card for nine years living in London. I assumed surrendering it would be a passport-office matter. TaxStone caught the exit-tax exposure early enough to plan around it.
What we catch
Common mistakes we see — and fix.
These are the positions that most often get filed wrong before clients come to us. Either way, we work backwards through them before drafting your return.
- Letting Green Card lapse passively without filing Form 8854 — still triggers exit tax
- Assuming a treaty-residency position pauses the long-term clock automatically (it doesn't unless properly elected)
- Missing the 5-year compliance certification at exit — turns you into a covered expatriate
- Renouncing in a high-net-worth year instead of waiting for asset rebalancing
Clients like you
Three snapshots from our practice.
Pre-surrender review
Held the card 11 years, planning to return permanently to the UK. We modelled exit-tax exposure, sequenced gifting + basis step-ups, and surrendered under the covered-expatriate thresholds.
Annual filing
Card holder in Edinburgh for 4 years, US filings up to date. Annual 1040 + FBAR + Form 8938, FTC carry-forward tracker, plus a 5-year compliance calendar so a future surrender is clean.
Inheritance + retirement
GC holder retiring back to the UK with a US 401(k), UK SIPP, and a US-situs estate inheritance. Treaty positions on both pensions, US estate exposure planning, and a ten-year drawdown schedule.
Services we’ll likely run
- Form 1040 — resident returnAnnual filing while card is validOpen service →
- Expatriation returnForm 8854 final-year filingOpen service →
- Exit tax & covered personsMark-to-market exit tax analysisOpen service →
- FBAR — foreign bank reportingFinCEN 114 ongoing while resident abroadOpen service →
- FATCA reportingForm 8938 — foreign financial assetsOpen service →
See if green card holders describes your situation.
We’ll confirm what you need to file — and just as importantly, what you don’t.