Brian Nelson is a freelance financial writer, among other things. His freelance writing business, ArcticLlama, provides high quality writing, content and other publications to clients.
As the Finance Gourmet, Brian offers the knowledge of a former financial planner, and CFP, with real clients. All that real world experience adds up to bring you the best tips and tricks in the game. More importantly, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I know what sounds good on paper, but probably won’t work out in real life.
When you read the Finance Gourmet you won’t get limited information. You’ll get details, details, and more details. My goal is that when you are done reading a Finance Gourmet posting you will have a real understanding of exactly what you are doing and what you can expect from doing it.
You can visit the main Finance Gourmet website here.
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Hello Brian,
I have just stumbled on Arctic Llama and Finance Gourmet, and I would like to take the moment to say they are both amazing.
I am getting into the freelance writing business right now, and your Arctic Llama has been a wonderful help. I see too that you know about freelance taxing.
To get to the point of my contact, would you be willing to offer me some advice regarding freelance writing and US taxes?
I do not reside in the US, but I am a citizen. My current foreign income is low enough that I am tax exempt, though I do have to report it. If I start freelancing, however, and am paid via PayPal into my US account, will the IRS require taxes for this income, even if used for living abroad? What if it is paid into a foreign account?
I realize you cannot legally be responsible for your reply, but if you have any idea of how I should go about this situation, it would be a great aid, and perhaps it will even give you a blog post…?
Thanks very much for any reply at all, and if no reply is received, thanks very much anyways as I’ve received a mountain of valuable information from your pages.
Saludos,
Ashley
Ashley,
Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad to have been useful.
Unfortunately, I’m not going to be too much help here. I don’t really know a lot about how foreign taxes work. What you are looking for is IRS Publication 54 – Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens Living Abroad
As a U.S. citizen your entire worldwide income is taxable. However, I know that if you work abroad, a certain amount of that ($92,000) is excluded, and then there are other things (like housing) that adjust what income is and is not excluded. You would fall under that setup if you are working for a non-US entity while living abroad. I do not know how getting the money into PayPal or a non-US account affects anything. I’m not sure, but I think if you work for a US company, that would be taxable regardless of where you live, but I might be wrong.
Hope that points you in the right direction, and sorry I couldn’t be more help.