Any expat US citizens out there (or dual US/UK) - taxes arrrghhh.

[CityDweller]

Do you file your US taxes yourself? Is it relatively straightforward? If so, do you use tax filing software? I looked at TurboTax, but it seems you need a US address/ bank account in order to use it (I have neither). My situation is relatively straight-forward (income below foreign-earned income exclusion level plus a bit of unearned income from rental income).

My DF is living in The US just now and he pays an accountant to do it....

My OH does DIY using turbo tax
I thought the software was available to buy for download
Not sure about billing address as OH has a US address

I use an accountant. I tried to use the software suggested on the IRS website as being suitable for expats (including turbo tax) but none could handle a non-us address and/or a non-citizen spouse.

yes I file myself and I use the free software available. In 2015 I used Taxslayer.com. There are a lot of companies available (google to see what you find). IRS have to make some services free to lower income types outside USA because they no longer let us file on paper IIRC. I dunno anything about Turbotax.

... In 2014 I used fileyourtaxes.com. I can't quite remember why it didn't work this year, I think I couldn't find the right way to logon, like it required me to declare my previous year's income to get a secure login but that didn't work so I gave up & went for another company.

Yeah, I'm currently having an accountant file my back taxes and FBARs so I can become 'tax compliant'. But I can't afford to have them file my taxes every year. I either need to be able to do it myself or I'm going to have to renounce my US citizenship...

Thanks for the tips - I'll look into them.

There are some online only accountancy firms who will do it for less

My wife and I used www.brighttax.com They're reasonably priced and made the whole process mostly painless. We had a very good experience with them.

I think we paid less than $400 and for FBARs they are easier to do yourself online. Brighttax wanted $99.

Yes, I can easily do the FBARs. It's the returns I'm worried about. The bill for the accountant to do my streamlining was huuuge, but I didn't have time to figure it out myself and all three quotes I got from accountants were of a similarly extortionate rate.

In my next career I'm going to become an accountant specialising in UK/US tax. And then retire at 35.

I just looked at their site again and it looks like they are under $1 thousand for a streamline. I guess I am not sure what is extortionate to you. Before we went with them I had inquired with accounting firms here and they are like 3 or 4 times that (our $400 fee). Hope this helps