The USA enforces what’s referred to as citizenship-based taxation, meaning that as a US citizen, you need to file taxes and report income to the IRS even if you don’t live in the US or earn anything there. Yes, even if you didn’t set foot in the US or earn any income there during the entire tax year. Even, in fact, if you haven’t done either of those things in your entire life.

This is in contrast to residency-based taxation, where a country determines that you owe taxes based on, well, your residency (or income earned within the country, even if you don’t live there, such as rental income from a property you own).

As a US citizen living abroad, this sets you up for potential double-taxation. I live in Germany. Germany, of course, wants me to pay taxes on income I earn while living here. But the US also wants me to report this income and possibly pay taxes on it, too.

The good news is that there are exclusions and credits in place to prevent or at least minimize the amount of double-tax you need to pay. In this post, I’ll discuss at a high level the US tax situation for Americans living abroad.

Always true: I am not a tax professional, just an internet stranger who’s trying to point you in the right direction. When in doubt, hire a tax professional. It’s often worth it!

Table of Contents

1. Filing deadlines for US citizens abroad

2. The Foreign Tax Credit (FTC)

3. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE)

4. Things to keep in mind when choosing between the FTC and FEIE

5. If you want to learn more

Filing deadlines for US citizens abroad

US citizens living abroad are given an automatic 2-month extension for the due date of their return and can request an extension until October if necessary.

Per the IRS (source):

“If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien residing overseas or are in the military on duty outside the U.S., on the regular due date of your return, you are allowed an automatic 2-month extension to file your return without requesting an extension. If you use a calendar year, the regular due date of your return is April 15, and the automatic extended due date would be June 15. If the due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the due date is delayed until the next business day.

If you qualify for the 2-month extension but are unable to file your return by the automatic 2-month extension date, you can request an additional extension to October 15…”

Note that if you want to contribute to an IRA for the previous tax year, the deadline is still the original tax return filing deadline not including extensions. In other words, the mid-April deadline.

Next, a couple of common exclusions that help US citizens abroad avoid double-taxation.

The Foreign Tax Credit

The Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) lets you reduce your tax burden to the US government based on how much income tax you’ve already paid to a foreign government (source: IRS).

I live in Germany, which has higher federal income tax rates than the US. Therefore, I pay more income tax to Germany than I would have paid in the US, thus the FTC lets me effectively “cancel out” my US tax liability. You can even “carry forward” an unused credit, that is, the foreign income tax paid that exceeds your US tax liability, for future years (source: IRS).

The FTC is generally the right choice if you want to contribute to e.g. a Roth IRA because it does not reduce your AGI the way other exclusions do. Exclusions such as…

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) allows you to exclude a fixed amount of foreign earned income from your US tax liability. In 2024, the amount was $126,500 per person (source: IRS).

The FEIE might be an appealing choice if you live in a country with very low (or no) income tax and therefore would not have an opportunity to use the FTC. Keep in mind this is often not going to be an issue if you’re an ALE (American Living in Europe).

The FEIE also has residency requirements. Per the IRS, you have to be:

• A U.S. citizen who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year,

• A U.S. resident alien who is a citizen or national of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty in effect and who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year, or

• A U.S. citizen or a U.S. resident alien who is physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months.

Conversely to the FTC, the FEIE does reduce your AGI and might result in an AGI that’s too low to qualify for a Roth IRA contribution, even if your MAGI falls within the limit to allow a full contribution.

What should you look out for when choosing between the FTC and FEIE?

Things you might not think about, but possibly should think about, when filing US taxes:

1. Contributing to US tax-advantaged retirement accounts: As I touched on above, if you are eligible based on your income to contribute to US retirement accounts such as the Roth IRA, you should probably consider the FTC and not the FEIE. In many cases, the FEIE will lower your AGI to an extent that it will be too low to allow a contribution.

2. Reporting unemployment payments and other benefits from your resident country: If you receive unemployment benefits from the country where you live (fairly common in Germany if you get laid off), you’ll need to report these payments as income when filing in the US. It’s not considered “earned income”, though (source: IRS), and so cannot be excluded under the FEIE, and you probably don’t pay income taxes on it, so you can’t necessarily apply the FTC, either. You therefore might end up having to pay taxes on it in the US.

   1. I’m not sure how other types of social benefits paid by a foreign government (parental leave, extended sick leave) are treated by the US for tax purposes and can’t find a good source here. If this is relevant to you, I recommend asking a US accountant if you can’t find a trustworthy answer yourself.

3. Combining the FTC and FEIE: It is possible, in a single year’s return, to use both the FTC and FEIE, but there are limitations to keep in mind. I don’t have any experience with this approach myself (and I don’t even know of a friend, or friend of a friend, who’s taken this approach). But you want to read more, here’s a writeup from an accounting firm that describes scenarios where it might make sense to combine the two.

If you want to learn more

I didn’t go into a ton of detail about the FTC and FEIE in this post. If you want to go deeper on US taxes for citizens abroad, there are many good blog posts, Reddit explainers, etc, that cover these concepts well and can help you decide which is right for you. Here’s another such post that I find helpful.

If you have any questions / comments / glaring errors I overlooked, drop them in below! I’ll update the post with more detail if I can find a good source on how other types of foreign social benefits (parental leave, long-term sick leave) are taxed in the US as well as good strategies for dealing with them.

What’s this? An overview of personal finance topics for a US citizen living in Europe, with a bias for Germany: taxes, investing, banking, currency conversion, credit cards, and so on. It’s an opinionated summary of everything I’ve absorbed in my 10 years living in Berlin.

If a friend asked, “What’s everything finance-related I should get familiar with before I move to Europe?”, I’d send something like this doc as an entry point.

It doesn’t get too deep into the details. That said, each of these sections will be spun out into 1+ dedicated posts at some point.

No sentences were GPT generated. I wrote every word and checked sources myself so I could be certain about what’s written here, even if I’m not certain it’s 100% correct.

It’s a living document, and I’ll update it regularly. Comments on this post are always open for questions or feedback. What’s missing? What seems a little off? Any factual errors? Let me know!

And as always, heed the disclaimer!

Last updated: October 2025

Table of Contents

1. Filing US taxes

2. FBAR: Reporting foreign accounts (Checking, Investment, etc.)

3. Streamlined filing: if you forgot to file US taxes or found some other oversight / mistake

4. Banking and checking accounts

5. Interest-paying savings accounts

6. Investing: taxable investment accounts

7. Investing: US tax-advantaged retirement accounts (Roth IRA, traditional IRA, etc.)

8. Non-US credit cards

Filing US taxes

• It’s almost certain that you’ll have to file taxes in the US every year, even if all of your income is foreign earned.

  • US citizens living abroad get an automatic filing extension to June 15 (source: IRS) and can file for an additional extension to October 15.

• A requirement to file in the US doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to pay any taxes in the US.

• There are two common exclusions to keep in mind to avoid paying double-taxes:

  • Foreign Tax Credit (FTC): Offset your US taxes based on income tax paid to a foreign country

  • Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE): Allows you to exclude a fixed amount of foreign earned income from your US tax liability; in 2024, the amount was $126,500 per person (source: IRS)

• If you live in a European country with relatively high income tax rates, the FTC is usually the best option (not financial advice, talk to your accountant).

  • Claiming the FTC rather than the FEIE generally allows you to, for example, contribute to a Roth IRA account as long as your modified AGI falls below the relevant limit, whereas claiming the FEIE might prevent you from being able to contribute (more on US retirement accounts below).

FBAR: Reporting foreign accounts

• Every year, you’ll also need to report all of your foreign banking and investment accounts if the aggregate total of all of your accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point throughout the year (source: IRS).

  • For me, this means accounts like N26, Wise, Revolut, ING, and any foreign-domiciled investment accounts like Interactive Brokers.

• It’s usually referred to as the FBAR.

• The FBAR is due on April 15 of the year following the year you’re reporting (so, your 2024 report is due by April 15, 2025). But you get an automatic extension to October 15 if you miss the April 15 deadline.

• I’ve always just filed myself using the online form. More info here: https://bsaefiling.fincen.gov/resources/FBAR_ONLINEEFILING.pdf

  • Your US accountant can also handle this for you.

• If you realize you made a mistake in an FBAR report (e.g. omitted an account, reported an incorrect amount), or you simply forgot to file before October 15, you can amend an FBAR filing or file late via the online form.

Streamlined filing: fixing mistakes with US taxes

I don’t have any personal experience with streamlined filing, but I wanted to call out that it exists in case you show up here and realize, “Sh*t, I’ve been living abroad for 10 years and never filed an FBAR report.” There could be a way to come clean!

• Streamlined filing is described by the IRS here

  • “The streamlined filing compliance procedures (“streamlined procedures”) describe below are available to taxpayers certifying that their failure to report foreign financial assets and pay all tax due in respect of those assets did not result from willful conduct on their part.”

• My advice, always: if you have questions or aren’t sure about this process, hire a financial professional to help you.

  • Many accounting firms who serve US citizens abroad offer streamlined filing packages

Banking and “checking” accounts

• Once you arrive in Europe, you’ll want at least one EUR bank account that provides a debit card, IBAN, and so on.

• I use EUR accounts to get paid by employers, pay my rent and various bills, take out cash, buy things online, etc. It can be useful to have an account that makes it super easy / not too costly to transfer EUR to a USD checking account.

• I have EUR bank accounts with N26, ING, Revolut, and Wise (all of which need to be reported on FBAR every year).

• N26 was the first account I opened in Germany in 2015, and I mostly use N26 for everyday banking.

  • I opened the ING (note: app and website only available in German) account so I could spread my money around a bit after reports of N26 suddenly closing / freezing customer accounts without notice and without an apparent reason (there are a ton of Reddit threads like this one).

    • That reminds me, I probably have too much cash sitting in N26 and should move some of it elsewhere.

• Revolut and Wise are good for transferring EUR to USD. I’ve had a Wise account since 2015, too (back when it was TransferWise), and opened a Revolut account much more recently to get access to their interest-paying savings product, see below.

  • Not sure if I need both, but there’s little downside to keeping the Wise account open. Just a little bit of FBAR overhead.

Interest-paying savings accounts

• I currently have 3 interest-paying savings accounts where I keep EUR: Wise, N26, and Revolut

• In general, rates offered to customers are subject to change depending on the ECB rate

• From what I’ve been able to find, interest rates are much lower than what’s available in the US, such as through Wealthfront Cash

• But it’s still a low-effort way to make a bit of money if you need to park your EUR somewhere safe for awhile

• As of October 2025, for EUR accounts (as a German resident):

• Wise:

  • Pays 0.8% per month for its Cashback offer (source)

    • I don’t keep much in Wise due to a) the low interest rate and b) not being clear on what deposit amount is protected by some form of government insurance (source)

  • N26:

  • Pays between 0.25% and 1.5% per year for its Instant Savings account, depending on which N26 plan you have (source)

    • Depending on how much you keep in N26, the math can work out that it makes sense to pay for an N26 Go or N26 Metal account to get access to a higher rate. You can still earn in a free account, though!

      • I’ll cover how to think about this in a dedicated blog post.

    • Protects deposits up to €100,000—across all accounts, not only Instant Savings—via the “Compensation Scheme of German Private banks (source)

  • Revolut:

  • Pays 2% per year for its Instant Access Savings account regardless of plan type—no need to upgrade to get a better interest rate! (I was able to find confirm this in Revolut’s help center when logged into the app, but I haven’t found a public page that I can link to)

• Protects deposits up to €100,000—across all accounts, not only Instant Access Savings—via the the Lithuanian State Company “Deposit and Investment Insurance” (source)

  • You’ll need to pay taxes on interest earned and report the income in your US tax return

  • I’ve had no issues using these interest-paying products as a US citizen (i.e. no “We don’t offer this to US citizens, sorry,” that we see so often)

  • In Germany, I’m aware of other services like Raisin that might offer higher interest rates, and I’ll look into this at some point

Investing: Taxable investment accounts

• It can be tough for US citizens abroad to find brokerage accounts that will accept them as customers; companies in both the US and in Europe will say, “Nah, too risky and complicated, you’re not welcome here.”

• You might be able to keep the brokerage accounts you opened while you were living in the US even after you’ve moved abroad. Some seem to be fine with having you as a customer if you have a permanent US mailing address you can use, e.g. your parents’ address. This is a bit of a grey area.

  • Others explicitly state that once you move abroad, you’re not supposed to be a customer anymore.

• My personal approach is: to avoid an account being frozen, put in a little extra effort to work with companies who are totally OK with having customers who are US citizens abroad. I find it less stressful to operate this way, even if it does impose some limits on how I can invest.

• I’ve found two companies that let US citizens living abroad open taxable brokerage accounts: Schwab and Interactive Brokers. I have accounts with both.

  • Schwab:

    • Offers a US-domiciled account that will therefore not need to be included in FBAR reports.

      • You’ll still need to report taxable income generated by the account to the US and to the country where you live.

    • Will not let you buy ETFs or mutual funds due to European regulations that I’ll get into some other time; in that sense, not amazing for a passive investor.

      • But you can buy, say, BRK.B, which some US citizens abroad use as an alternative to ETFs

    • Makes it easy to transfer EUR directly into the account and offers reasonable exchange rates to USD

  • Interactive Brokers:

    • Offers an account through its Irish entity, which therefore would need to be included in FBAR reports; as a foreign account, it could also push you over the limit for FATCA reporting if you park a lot of money there.

    • Makes it possible to trade in EUR and USD (you can deposit in EUR then convert to USD within IBKR).

    • Allows you to buy e.g. Vanguard ETFs that are listed on European exchanges (such as VUAA).

      • BE VERY CAUTIOUS ABOUT THIS, lest you stumble into PFIC problems (also a topic for a separate post)

      • Personally, I do not buy European-registered ETFs or mutual funds due to PFIC concerns. If you have more of an appetite for complexity and punitive taxes than I do and want to wade into this world, I suggest talking to a US tax professional first (as always).

Investing: US tax-advantaged retirement accounts

• While living abroad, you can still hold and even contribute to US tax-advantaged retirement accounts such as a Roth IRA and traditional IRA

• As I understand it, contributing to a Roth IRA in particular requires a bit of threading the needle:

  • Your MAGI (modified adjusted gross income) needs to be below the Roth IRA contribution limits; in 2025, that’s $150,000 for a single filer and $236,000 for a joint filer (source: Schwab).

  • Your AGI (adjusted gross income, or basically MAGI minus deductions such as the FEIE) needs to be more than the amount that you contribute; in other words, to make the full $7000 or $8000 contribution (source: IRS), your AGI needs to be at least $7000 or $8000.

  • Because the FEIE can reduce your AGI significantly, US citizens abroad who claim the FEIE might find themselves in a situation where their MAGI allows them to make a full Roth IRA contribution, but their AGI does not because it’s too low.

    • This is a potential advantage of claiming the FTC instead of the FEIE (the FTC won’t reduce your AGI in the same way but can still limit or remove your tax burden)

  • Talk to your US accountant to be sure your MAGI and AGI make you eligible to contribute to an IRA of any sort before making a contribution.

• Depending on where you plan to retire, it might not really make sense to contribute to IRAs while you’re living abroad; for example, some European countries don’t give the Roth IRA the same special tax treatment it gets in the US, but some do.

• Both Schwab and Interactive Brokers will allow US citizens living abroad to open and maintain traditional / rollover / Roth IRA accounts. I’ve reached out to customer service at both companies to ask about restrictions around buying ETFs within IRAs. I learned that Schwab is more restrictive than IBKR. I’ll get into the details in a dedicated post.

Non-US credit cards

• First, I do still have my USD Capital One Venture card, which I’ve used for more than a decade. Points earned on the handful of USD purchases I make still make the annual fee worthwhile. And it’s convenient to have on hand for trips to the US.

• At least in Germany, there’s not nearly the same credit card-and-points culture that you might be used to in the US.

• I often hear people in Berlin refer to their debit cards as “credit cards,” and I’m still not sure why. Maybe a bit of nuance lost in translation?

  • I assume there’s not as much of an appetite for buying things on credit in Germany as there is in the US, but I won’t go deep on the underlying psychology.

  • Suffice to say, credit card options are less plentiful and less at the forefront of personal finance culture.

• That said, you can find a range of American Express cards in Germany, some free and some with a monthly or annual fee

• I have an AmEx Gold in Germany and think the points system is decent; in my case, the benefits justify the annual fee. But there are plenty of solid free options (I have my eye on the Payback card, too)

• In general, the benefits don’t mirror what you might be used to in the US 1:1 (for example, no form of car rental insurance is offered through my German card), but there’s still a pretty long list of perks.

• My experience is that AmEx is pretty widely accepted throughout Germany—at drugstores, grocery stores, retailers, online shopping, etc.

• You can make your AmEx your primary payment method on your German PayPal account so that even if an online merchant doesn’t accept AmEx, but they do accept PayPal, you can accrue points for the purchase.

Topics I want to cover as I learn more

• What do you need to know if you own property abroad?

• Can you safely contribute to foreign pension products if they invest in ETFs (which might qualify as PFICs)?

That’s the end of the guide for now! Share your feedback, and I promise to update and improve this over time.