Glossary

A list of acronyms and other terminology that will show up often on cheese.fyi.

• ALE: Americans Living in Europe, shorthand that I’ll use often when writing. For clarity, I avoid the term “expat” because the IRS refers to “expatriation” as the process of renouncing one’s US citizenship, which is generally not what we’re talking about on cheese.fyi.

• FBAR: Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, an annual requirement of US citizens abroad to report foreign financial accounts—banking, investment, etc. (source: IRS)

• FEIE: Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, a tax exclusion that, under certain conditions, allows US citizens to exclude a certain amount of foreign-earned income when filing US taxes (source: IRS)

• FTC: Foreign Tax Credit, a credit that allows you to offset your US taxes based on income tax paid to a foreign country (source: IRS)

• PFIC: Passive Foreign Investment Company, a classification that can include certain investments, such as foreign-domiciled ETFs, and are taxed punitively in the US (source: Investopedia)