Expat Tax Accountant: 4 Situations and Who Fits Each

Expat Tax Accountant: 4 Situations and Who Fits Each

Moving abroad does not move you out of the US tax system. If you are a US citizen or green card holder, the IRS generally expects a return every year you are over the filing threshold, on your worldwide income, wherever you happen to be sleeping.

That is why "find an expat tax accountant" is the wrong search. The better question is which part of your life abroad is complicated, because the firm that fits a founder running a Delaware company from Lisbon is not necessarily the one that fits a nomad with three exchanges and a hardware wallet.

Here are four situations and who fits each. The firms are Iota Finance, a Florida firm offering monthly accounting, tax and fractional CFO work, for people abroad with a US business or equity pay, and Crypto Tax Made Easy, a New Jersey digital asset tax firm, for people abroad whose complexity is crypto. Both live profiles list Digital Nomads as a specialty. The list is grouped by situation, not ranked. Every firm named is a vetted Sam's List member. The firms written up below are paying members of our featured program, and payment does not buy the language we use or their reviews. How we chose is at the end.

What an Expat Tax Accountant Has to Handle First

Before the four situations, the baseline. Every American abroad has the same starting rules, and a good expat tax accountant will raise them in the first call.

Worldwide income. US citizens are taxed on income from everywhere, not just the US.

Two ways to reduce double tax. The foreign earned income exclusion, claimed on Form 2555, can exclude earned income up to an annual limit if you meet a residence or physical presence test. The foreign tax credit, claimed on Form 1116, can offset US tax with income tax paid to another country. Which one is better depends on where you live and what kind of income you have.

Extra time to file, not to pay. Taxpayers living abroad on the regular due date generally get an automatic two-month extension to file, to June 15. Interest on any unpaid tax still runs from April 15.

Foreign accounts. If your foreign financial accounts together exceed $10,000 at any point in the year, you generally have to file an FBAR with FinCEN, separately from your tax return. Form 8938 may apply too, at higher thresholds for people living abroad.

The limitation: none of this tells you what your country of residence expects. A US firm is not a substitute for advice on local tax, and some situations need both.

1. Digital Nomad Taxes When You Run a US Company From Abroad

This is the founder or freelancer whose business is a US LLC or corporation, with a US bank account and US clients, run from a laptop in another country.

Digital nomad taxes get complicated fast here. Business income from a single-member LLC is generally self-employment income, and the foreign earned income exclusion does not remove self-employment tax. Whether you owe US self-employment tax or the other country's social tax can depend on a totalization agreement between the two. Your old state may also still consider you a resident if you never cleanly left.

The company side needs attention too: a bookkeeping routine that works across time zones, a business return filed on time, and an entity choice that still makes sense now that you live elsewhere.

Iota Finance fits this situation if you want monthly books and the tax returns handled in one place. It is based in Florida, founded in 2022, with about seven employees, serving clients nationwide. Igor Tutelman, CPA, is the Managing Partner. Its profile lists bookkeeping, business tax preparation, individual tax preparation and entity formation among its services, and names Digital Nomads, Cryptocurrency Investors and Equity Compensation as specialties.

Iota Finance has 14 verified client reviews on Sam's List as of 2026-10-02. Each review is submitted by an individual who identifies as a client of the firm and rates it on communication, subject-matter knowledge, and overall satisfaction. Reviews reflect those individual experiences and do not represent an endorsement by Sam's List. Iota Finance is a paying member of our featured program, and payment does not buy its reviews. Ratings and rankings are not indicative of future performance or results.

The limitation: Iota Finance lists minimums of $200,000 income, $500,000 revenue or $500,000 raised, so a smaller one-person business may fall outside them. Its profile does not say which countries it has worked with, so ask about yours.

2. Crypto Taxes While Living Abroad

This is the nomad whose income may be simple but whose portfolio is not: coins on a foreign exchange, a US exchange, a wallet or two, and maybe some staking or DeFi activity.

Crypto taxes while living abroad follow the same US rules as at home. A sale, a swap of one coin for another and spending crypto can all be taxable events, and rewards are generally income when received. What changes abroad is the records. A foreign exchange may not issue any US tax form, may close or change its export format, and may report in a currency other than dollars.

Two more wrinkles. Capital gains are not earned income, so the foreign earned income exclusion does not cover them. And whether an account at a foreign exchange has to be reported on an FBAR depends on what it holds, and FinCEN Notice 2020-2 says accounts holding only virtual currency are not currently reportable but that it intends to change the rule, so ask rather than assume.

Crypto Tax Made Easy fits this situation. It is a digital asset tax firm based in Little Silver, New Jersey, founded in 2021, with six employees, serving clients nationwide. Its profile lists Cryptocurrency Investors, Digital Nomads and High Net Worth Individuals as specialties, and tax planning and strategy, individual tax preparation, and tax resolution and IRS representation among its services, and it prices crypto data reconciliation separately from tax filing.

Crypto Tax Made Easy has 6 verified client reviews on Sam's List as of 2026-10-02. Each review is submitted by an individual who identifies as a client of the firm and rates it on communication, subject-matter knowledge, and overall satisfaction. Reviews reflect those individual experiences and do not represent an endorsement by Sam's List. Crypto Tax Made Easy is a paying member of our featured program, and payment does not buy its reviews. Ratings and rankings are not indicative of future performance or results.

The limitation: its profile prices crypto data reconciliation separately from tax filing, and a messy multi-exchange history can take real work to rebuild. Ask for a scope and a price before it starts.

3. An Expat Tax Accountant for Equity Pay From a US Employer

This is the employee who kept a US job, or a job at a US company, after moving, and who has restricted stock units, options or an employee stock purchase plan.

Equity is where expat returns go wrong in a specific way. Income from stock that vests while you live abroad may be partly sourced to the US and partly to where you worked during the vesting period, and the other country may tax it on a different schedule. Withholding by a US payroll system may not match what you owe either country.

Iota Finance fits here too, because its live profile lists Equity Compensation as a specialty alongside Digital Nomads. Bring your grant documents, vesting schedules, a record of where you physically worked and when, and the payroll statements showing what was withheld.

The limitation: cross-border equity is fact-specific and often depends on a tax treaty. Ask whether the firm has handled equity for someone living in your country, and whether you will need a local adviser alongside it.

4. Behind on US Filings After Moving Abroad

This is the person who did not know Americans abroad had to keep filing, and who now has several unfiled years and possibly unfiled FBARs.

The IRS has procedures for taxpayers abroad whose failure to file was not willful, including the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, which generally involve filing recent years of returns and FBARs with a certification of non-willful conduct. Whether you qualify depends on your facts, and the certification is a statement made under penalty of perjury, so it needs care.

If the backlog is mostly crypto, Crypto Tax Made Easy fits: its profile lists tax resolution and IRS representation among its services and prices crypto data reconciliation separately from tax filing. If the backlog is mostly business and wage income, ask Iota Finance how it handles prior-year returns.

The limitation: neither profile mentions the streamlined procedures by name, so ask directly whether the firm has used them. And if there is any question of willfulness, talk to a tax attorney before filing anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do US citizens living abroad have to file a US tax return?

Generally yes. US citizens and green card holders are taxed on worldwide income and must file if their income is above the filing threshold, wherever they live. Those abroad on the regular due date get an automatic two-month extension to file, but interest on unpaid tax runs from April 15.

Does the foreign earned income exclusion cover crypto gains?

No. The foreign earned income exclusion applies to earned income, such as wages and self-employment income, if you meet its residence or presence test. Capital gains, including gains on crypto, are not earned income, so they stay taxable. Ask your tax professional how the foreign tax credit might apply instead.

What is an FBAR and who has to file one?

An FBAR is a report of foreign financial accounts filed with FinCEN, separately from your tax return. You generally must file if the combined value of your foreign accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the year. Penalties for not filing can be significant, so ask early.

How do I choose an expat tax accountant?

Start with what makes your situation complicated: a US business, crypto, equity pay or unfiled years. Then ask each firm whether it has handled that situation for someone in your country, what it needs from you, and whether you will also need a local adviser.

Whichever situation sounds like yours, write down the complicated part before the first call. You can browse accountants on Sam's List, including the firms above, and ask each one about it.

How We Chose These Firms

You should be able to check our work, so here is how this post was built.

The pool. The firms here are vetted Sam's List members in our featured program with a live public profile that lists Digital Nomads as a specialty. This is not a survey of every expat tax firm, and many firms not written up here serve Americans abroad.

How it is organized. The four items are situations, not a ranking. Each firm is matched to the situation its live profile speaks to most directly, and the order of the situations carries no ranking of the firms.

What review counts mean here. We cite each firm's verified review count and its date from its profile. A count shows how many clients wrote something down. It does not measure technical quality.

What payment does and does not buy. Listing on Sam's List is free, and so is being named in this article. The firms written up here are paying members of our featured program, which is why they get a write-up. What payment does not buy is the language we use about a firm, its review count, or a promise that it fits you.

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About the author: Kimberly Green is the cofounder of Sam's List, where business owners and high earners find vetted CPAs, financial advisors, and fractional CFOs. She's met one-on-one with 400+ financial professionals and writes from the real data behind thousands of client-advisor matches. Ask her anything about finding an accountant - she's heard it all, including the questions people are afraid to ask.