HELP!! Paying Taxes

Hey all. I need some help and you lot are my go to guys/gals for anything so here goes.

I'm UK citizen living in Middle East so no tax liability in UK (I have no property there etc). I do have a small property in US (Florida, student rented) managed by a management company on site.

I've had it about 10 years and in the 1st year of ownership the management company was audited and, as a result, I found out that I have to file for US taxes even though the rental amount is nowhere near the threshold to actually pay anything. I had no idea what to do so I employed an accountant that promptly charged me $800 to file two tax returns (me and wife as we are joint owners) and got me and wife tax payer numbers because neither of us have social security numbers. They did this for another 4 years and then I just didn't have the $800 they wanted every year to file a return.

That was 5 years ago. I still don't have that kind of cash to pay an accountant to file returns for those years. I have all the receipts from the management company.

What do I do?? Help me Obi Wan you're my only hope.

You pay them yourself. You are going to do this, you can totally do this, and it’s not even that hard. The IRS has a reputation that overwhelms reality. They want their taxes, and if you are doing your best to pay them, the absolute worst thing that will happen is they will ask you to correct for your mistakes and pay them. They aren’t in the business of running down every person that runs a property in FL that is paying taxes, even if slightly wrong.

We have some equities, retirement accounts, a mortgage, and our tax preparer told us to just do it ourselves. She said she was doing maybe $50 of work and had to charge us $300 for it, and it was one of our worst investments. We started doing it on our own 13 years ago.

It will still cost like $80 or $90 or whatever TurboTax charges for the property manager version. You should still have your older returns. It will walk you through how to pay your federal and state taxes (might be another $20 there, but check if FL has free tax forms outside of TurboTax’s racket). That’s it. You have your old returns as a guide and a very gentle software program to send you through the thickets of nonsense that are the US tax code. The return at the end should look like the previous, for the most part, or at least provide the context you need to make sense of it. You’ll know where the numbers come from.

Thanks Jeb, but it looks like that isn't going to work as I am a non resident alien and I can't use the service.

Yep, tried that, same problem not set up for non resident aliens and they managed to give me largely useless advice.

Maybe talk to someone at the embassy?

I think you might be under the mistaken impression that embassies are there to help the common man get through the problems of living outside his/her own country.

Trust me, they don't give a fuck. They do, however, love to validate documents with a stamp that will cost you $75 a document.

Tried this and cannot work out what to do or where my expenses go or what my allowance is.

Basically, it's much harder as a foreigner. I don't pay State Tax because I don't live in US.

I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and email the accountant. Even posting shit from here is really hard.

Ahh well, was maybe hoping someone here was an accountant or could recommend one with good knowledge of non resident alien status that isn't going to cost me and Tanya 2 months rent.

ubarose wrote: Have you tried doing it the old fashioned way.

Go to www.irs.gov/forms-instructions

Find the forms you need

Print them out, fill them out and mail them in.

You will probably need to do the same with the state tax.

If you have copies of last year's taxes you should be able to figure out what forms you need.

Like, with a pen? Are you from the 1900s? Are paper copies even legal anymore? How the hell would he get it to the IRS?

Thanks Uba

that makes me feel very slightly better. I contacted the old accountant.

Slightly more expensive from here as there is no postal service so everything has to be sent via FedEx. Hoping that e submission of 1040NR will be on stream soon.