Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Geckoman]

Remember to File Your Federal Income Taxes by June 15th, 2009!

This is a reminder to all Americans living abroad that you have to file your federal income taxes by June 15th, 2009.

The deadline for filing your federal income taxes if you are living in the U.S. is April 15th, but if you are living abroad, you get a two month extension, which puts the deadline at June 15th, 2009. See this IRS website that tells about the two month extension: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96768,00.html

You do not have to pay any federal income taxes if you made less than approximately $80,000 last year, but you still have to file it.

You can download the form on the internet. I would recommend that you download it, fill it out and sign it, and then express mail (Fedex, DHL, etc.) it to someone you know in the U.S. who can turn it in for you or send it directly to the IRS.

If you do not think that you can do it in time, you can always request for an extension. I do not know if you have to do that by June 15th or not. I do think the extension gives you up to sometime in August to file your federal income taxes. As far as I am aware there is no special criteria required for an extension and it will be granted to you. I did that in 2007.

If you did not file your federal income taxes in the past, as seems to be the case of many Americans I have met in Korea, according to the ads I�ve seen in at least one of the English language newspapers here in Korea by the tax-assistance company, H&R Block, you can file it anytime afterwards without penalty as long as it is before the IRS catches you. So once the IRS catches you, your in trouble. But if you do file it late, before the IRS has caught you, then your still okay. So later is better than never.

So it�s best to file any past due federal income taxes that you have not filed as soon as possible. And if you are unable to figure out how much it was that you made in the past, then just give an estimation, as that�s all you can do.

There is an H&R Block in Itaewon, so if you need help you can always contact them. As far as I am aware, it is still there, though I haven�t seen them advertised in any of the English language newspapers in a while.

Have people actually been persecuted for not filing their federal income taxes? While rare, yes they have.

I do know of a case in Guam where a guy named Jeff Evans spent a month in federal prison for not filing his federal income taxes for three years. While in prison he met two other guys who were also serving time for not filing their federal income taxes.

Jeff Evans was a popular Republican TV personality in Guam and he believes he was targeted because it was an election year and so the Democratic opposition wanted him off the air so that they could push their agenda without worrying about him influencing the public to vote Republican.

Read about his story here:
�Does IRS have political hit list?�
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=3160

If you want to contact Jeff Evans here is his e-mail address: [email protected]

What happened was that Jeff Evans didn�t bother to file his federal income taxes and at a party he told people that, and someone at the party didn�t like him, likely because he was an influential Republican TV personality with a large following, and thus he was controversial figure, and ratted him to the IRS.

So if you have not filed your federal income taxes with the IRS in the past, do not tell anyone, as who knows, someone might rat you out like someone did to Jeff Evans � you never know � and file it/them as soon as possible.

If your wondering why Jeff Evans would have to pay federal income taxes when he was working in Guam, as Guam is a U.S. territory and we all know that U.S. territories do not pay federal taxes, which is the biggest argument used against opting for statehood, well, in Guam, the local Guam government never bothered to create their own tax system that could be applied to all its residents, such as an income tax or a sales tax, and so the federal government does it for them, collecting money via its federal income tax system, and then giving it to the local Guam government. And so in Guam the residents there still have to pay an income tax to the IRS, as well as also file that income tax with the IRS, even though that money stays on island and does not go to the federal government, it really being a local Guam income tax that is carried out by the feds. That�s how Jeff Evans got busted even though he lived on Guam.

Last year the U.S. government gave an approximate $600 rebate to everyone who filed their federal income taxes as part of President Bush's effort to kick-start the economy. That was nice. Sucks for everyone who missed out on that last year because they didn't file their federal income taxes.

So be sure to file your federal income tax by June 15th, 2009.

Please pass this information on to other Americans living abroad.

[Geckoman]

Wesley Snipes Gets Hard Time For Failing to File Taxes!

Better file your taxes. Look what happened to Wesley Snipes. He has just gotten sentenced to three years in prison for three misdemeanor counts of failing to file his taxes.

And there is no parole in the federal system. So he will be there for the full three years.

REMEMBER THAT EVEN IF YOU WORKED OVERSEAS AND MADE LESS THAN APPROXIMATELY $80,000 YOU STILL HAVE TO FILE YOUR TAXES!!

Don't let what happened to Wesley Snipes happen to you!

To learn about the Snipes case see below or go to http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/24/snipes.sentencing/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

[Geckoman]

We Have An Additional Day to File!

Remember that we are one day ahead of the U.S. mainland, Alaska and Hawaii. This being due to the location of the International Dateline which is in our favor.

So June 15th for them is for us June 16th. So we actually have one more day to file our federal income taxes.

Filing it in Hawaii would give you the most time. And filing it in Guam would give you the least amount of time as Guam is actually ahead of us by one hour (2 p.m. Korea time is 3 p.m. Guam time).

And you can of course by pass the mail system altogether by filing online.

[Geckoman]

If you can�t pay your taxes, don�t hide from IRS
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30214856/

Quote:

"But agents will continue to impose big penalties on those who simply neglect to file an income tax return."

[pete213]

wtf?

So how long do you have to be out of the U.S. before you stop having to file a tax return?

[superacidjax]

[Geckoman]

Bump

[harlowethrombey]

Huh, I didnt know we had until June. Oh well, I already did it in april.

[Cordova]

Being over here and earning under the $100K threshold, no one here would probable raise an eyebrow. The IRS employees are slaves to computer generated reports. However, they will look at things they refer to as "structuring" ; that is ETFs to U.S. financial institutions that are $1000 to $9000 (although it might have changed) that occur frequently and fall outside of their home-cooked algorithm.

[icnelly]

H&R Block in Itaewon thread.

[icnelly]

I'm going through all this for grad school aid applications and what not. I was going to head into the Itaewon H&R Block, but from what Pkang0202 said, I started thinkin not to. This is what I've found:

Question on Foreign Earned Income

Tax Form 2555

Tax Form 2555EZ (I presume this is what Pkang found)

Tax Instructions for 2555EZ

It seems pretty simple...

[Geckoman]

Bump

[Mirabilis85]

Yeah so Im a couple months late on the tax filing, but better late than never right? So basically we file the 2555 if we earned income only in Korea in 2008?


How about the Korean tax return? Did you guys file that?

[tonyvu]

i wont pass the physical presence test until august of next year since i've only been here for 3 months. Should i apply for an extension to file if i want the foreign earned income exclusion or is it not necessary (since my 2009 earnings will be less than $80,000)?

Also, do i have to pay any US taxes if im exempt from paying korean income tax?

[T-J]