US Tax Returns: Eased Filing Procedures for Non-residents

The IRS has announced eased procedures for non-resident US taxpayers to get back into the system, effective September 2012. This is aimed at the 'minnows' (as opposed to the 'whales'), and will apply only if you owe less than $1,500 for any given year of filing.

This 'good will' effort on the part of the IRS no doubt reflects their being absolutely buried in very uninteresting returns that cost more to process than they are worth. There will be more explicit regulations coming out during the course of the summer, no doubt. See the IRS website . ACA and two other groups have issued a press release on this subject.

This was released just before the Geneva session of a FATCA panel discussion (27 June 2012) in which ACA's Jackie Bugnion participated. Also on the panel was J. Richard ('Dick') Harvey, who helped author the FATCA legislation. He said, “I think there has already been some squawking in the US that $1,500 is too low, and maybe it is too low.”