Recommended Service for US Citizens and US taxes?

[expat2011]

Hello Retire Japan. So, this is my fifth year of living in Japan and I've never had any problems filing my US taxes (done myself), but this year I was hit with a CP2000 for 2016 and it really freaked me out. It was totally unexpected, and even today I still don't completely understand what caused it, but I have a better picture. Anyways, the point is, I had to get a tax representative to help me out, and it really makes me worry about future returns. I don't want to make another mistake. So, I'm willing to pay the money to make sure it's done by a professional, or use software that is capable of doing a FEIE.

Have any US expats used a service or representative you're satisfied with? Greenback taxes look reasonable, and I know H&R Block have a tax service. I've also seen listings for professionals in Osaka. They look super expensive, but I may be able to justify it because my level of stress has been so high I would view it as a health investment.

[RetireJapan]

There's a guy living in Chiba who seems good. I can't vouch for his work personally (I am British), but he seems very solid online.

He is @Hoofin on Twitter and this is his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickgundlach/

If you contact him, tell him I sent you. I keep asking him to do a guest post for the blog, but so far he doesn't think it is worth it

[captainspoke]

What is a CP2000? And how were you 'hit' with it?

I've never heard of this.


edit: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/underst ... 000-notice

Ah, I see... I guess you'll have to read that and figure out what the discrepancy is--what you filed/declared, and what they think is going on.

[expat2011]

Thank you for the contact! I will look him up.

Regarding the CP2000, yeah it means what the IRS heard about you is different from what you told them. I hired a tax representative to help me out because I do not have time to dig into my records from years ago (literally, I would if I could but I'm commuting 3 hours a day), and even if I did I would probably still not provide the right information. So from now on I'd like assistance getting it right the first time.