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IPFS News Link • TAXES: Federal

Tax Season & IRS Cutbacks Bring More Headaches for Expats

• http://blogs.wsj.com, By DEBRA BRUNO

The Internal Revenue Service announced in January that it would be closing its remaining walk-in IRS offices within U.S. embassies in London, Frankfurt, and Paris this fiscal year. In November, the IRS shut down its Beijing office. Back in the 1990s, the IRS had offices in 13 countries around the world.

Where does that leave Americans who might have called or visited the offices for questions on their federal income tax? The IRS directs Americans to online tools on its website, covering everything from downloadable forms to a hotline in which expats can call the IRS's Philadelphia-based International Customer Service site.

The closing of offices is "regrettable," says Marylouise Serrato, executive director of American Citizens Abroad, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.  Recent changes to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) filing requirements have made the process of filing taxes from abroad "a lot more complicated," Ms. Serrato says. The walk-in offices at embassies were some of the "few resources that were available overseas. Now U.S. citizens don't have access to those," she says. American citizens are the only expats in the world who must file income tax reports, unless they renounce their citizenship.


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