IRS digital help expands for individual taxpayers abroad

Taxpayers living abroad now have more ways to get answers without immediately reaching for the international IRS phone line.

• The IRS has expanded its international live chat beyond transcript requests and amended return questions. Individual taxpayers with international tax issues can now use the service for most questions, including refunds, balances, payments and IRS correspondence. Live chat is available in English Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time. For account-specific help, taxpayers must have an active Individual Online Account and complete identity verification.
• The IRS also expanded Where’s My Amended Return? to taxpayers with international addresses. Taxpayers abroad can now use the online tool to check an amended return about three weeks after filing by entering their Social Security number, date of birth and ZIP code or postal code. The tool provides status information for the current tax year and up to three prior years.

Automatic two-month extension

While April 15 is the day most individual federal income tax returns are due each year, U.S. citizens and resident aliens living and working abroad benefit from an automatic two-month filing extension, due Monday, June 15. Even if a taxpayer qualifies for the automatic two-month extension, they are still required to pay any tax due by April 15, and the IRS will charge interest from that date.

The automatic two-month extension was implemented because U.S. citizens and resident aliens filing returns from outside the continental United States and Puerto Rico must often contend with the postal delays that sometimes occur when returns are mailed from overseas. U.S. taxpayers automatically qualify for an extension if they:

• Live and have their main place of business or post of duty outside the United States or Puerto Rico
• Are on military or naval duty outside the United States and Puerto Rico

To take advantage of the extension, the taxpayer must attach a statement to their return explaining which of the above-listed situations applies to them.

Which international taxpayers must file?

Even if they live abroad, U.S. citizens and resident aliens are responsible for filing federal income tax returns in the same manner as U.S. residents. Additionally, U.S. taxpayers are taxed on their worldwide income from all sources and must report all taxable income, as required by the U.S. Tax Code. That means U.S. citizens and resident aliens are still required to report income earned from foreign sources, regardless of where they reside.

Limited e-filing options

Taxpayers living in the United States have grown accustomed to avoiding the hassle of paper-filing their federal income tax returns by using a tax professional who e-files their returns or e-filing their returns themselves using online software. However, some taxpayers residing outside of the United States may not have those options. This is because the software used by tax professionals or provided online may not accept foreign mailing addresses. Taxpayers in that situation have no choice but to paper-file their returns by mail.

For the 2025 tax year, some overseas taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less could take advantage of the IRS’s Free File program, but the program may not be available for some foreign addresses.

An additional extension available

Taxpayers who live abroad and can’t file by the June 15 deadline can often take advantage of an automatic six-month extension of time to file their returns. To receive the extension, the taxpayer must file Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return by June 15. Several providers offer free e-filing of the form through the IRS’s Free File program but may not be able to accommodate a foreign address.

The six-month extension runs from the April 15 tax filing deadline, not the June 15 deadline for taxpayers living and working abroad. Thus, the six-month extension will only give a taxpayer until Oct. 15 to file their return. Additionally, the IRS will still charge interest on any tax not paid by the due date.

Additional reporting requirements

U.S. citizens and residents with an interest or other authority over certain financial accounts exceeding a combined total of $10,000 at any time during the previous year must also file a Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Forms 114 are due by April 15, but account owners who miss the April deadline receive an automatic six-month extension until Oct. 15.