I know asking a tax question on here is like asking a clown to perform my appendectomy, but every CPA and tax prep person I've contacted has blown me off so I thought I'd see if there's anyone here who has dealt with a similar situation who may have some suggestions.
My girlfriend and I are US citizens living in Mexico. I get a W2 from a company in one state while claiming residence in another (how it was before the move to Mexico). Total PITA, I get a refund from the state where my employer is, then pay the state where I claim residence. I do some gay webmastering on the side that I claim. My girlfriend is a writer, but doesn't get any kind of 1099 or W2 or whatnot.
While I'd love to pay as little in taxes as legally possible, the real issue is making our tax situation easier to handle.
Some ideas we've had (again, no one who is a pro in the industry seems to want to help with any of this, so here I am):
If anyone has any ideas/suggestions of things I should look into or a tax prep/CPA person who might be able to actually answer these questions instead of just blowing me off, I'd love any suggestions.
My girlfriend and I are US citizens living in Mexico. I get a W2 from a company in one state while claiming residence in another (how it was before the move to Mexico). Total PITA, I get a refund from the state where my employer is, then pay the state where I claim residence. I do some gay webmastering on the side that I claim. My girlfriend is a writer, but doesn't get any kind of 1099 or W2 or whatnot.
While I'd love to pay as little in taxes as legally possible, the real issue is making our tax situation easier to handle.
Some ideas we've had (again, no one who is a pro in the industry seems to want to help with any of this, so here I am):
- I could establish residence in the same state where I get the W2 fairly easily and just pretend I live there for tax purposes.
- I could claim my girlfriend as a dependent (she makes an okay living, enough to cover her half of everything, but nowhere near what I do) since it appears as though no one is claiming what they pay her. Her first year working independently was last year and she chose not to file taxes because what she made was so low and she could easily pay any penalties if it ever came back on her, and now is on various contracts at a point where we should consider tax ideas for her going forward.
- I could get someone who actually know about expats and taxes to tell me if, and how much, I'm actually required to pay since I spend very little time in the states and only on business trips. There's supposedly some expat tax rate, but I can't seem to find anything concrete on it and that would help more with the fed side than the state issue.
- I could establish residence in some state like Nevada so I don't have to pay any income taxes.
- Other.
If anyone has any ideas/suggestions of things I should look into or a tax prep/CPA person who might be able to actually answer these questions instead of just blowing me off, I'd love any suggestions.
Thanks for the info, I'll try tracking down a tax lawyer or ten. And yeah, you're right, just trying to make the state part easier mostly, not avoid taxes altogether.
I tried to be as clear as possible that I'm not trying to avoid paying taxes or do anything illegal, I'm just trying to make the process simpler on myself. If my situation lends itself to solutions that result in paying less taxes, that's fine too, but that's not goal #1.