US Expat Tax Estimator
For American digital nomads. Plug in income, days outside the US, and a few facts about your accounts and domicile — we’ll estimate FEIE eligibility, federal tax savings, self-employment-tax exposure, FBAR / FATCA reporting flags, and whether your last state of domicile aggressively keeps you on its tax rolls.
Your situation
US tax year 2026 figures. Saved in your browser.
FEIE eligibility
Likely eligibleQualifies via the Physical Presence Test (330 days outside the US in the last 12 months).
FEIE max
$130,000
Excluded
$100,000
Estimated savings
$13,273
Federal tax estimate
2026 brackets, standard deduction applied, before any other credits or deductions.
Without FEIE
$13,273
With FEIE applied
$0
Editorial estimates based on 2026 figures, not tax advice. FEIE max is $130,000 per qualifying spouse. Real returns interact with the standard deduction, foreign tax credits, retirement contributions, ACA premium tax credits, state-specific rules, treaty positions, and self-employment structures — none of which this tool models. Use it as a starting point; route the actual filing through a cross-border CPA.
FEIE in a nutshell
The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion lets US citizens / green-card holders exclude up to $130,000 (2026) of foreign-earned income per qualifying spouse from US federal income tax. It applies to active earnings (wages, self-employment) — not passive income, capital gains, or dividends. Two paths to qualify: Physical Presence Test (330+ days outside the US in any rolling 12-month period) or Bona Fide Residence (uninterrupted residence in a foreign country for an entire tax year, harder to establish).
Self-employment tax
FEIE excludes income from federal income tax. It does NOT exclude self-employment tax(15.3% on the first $176,100 of SE earnings, 2.9% Medicare above). For nomads on 1099 / Schedule C, this is the biggest unfunded number on the tax return. The standard fixes are a foreign self-employment structure (so SE tax doesn’t apply) or a US S-corporation that pays you a reasonable salary plus distributions.
FBAR & FATCA
FBAR (FinCEN 114) reports foreign bank accounts if their aggregate value exceeded $10,000 at any point during the year. Filed separately from your 1040. Penalties for non-filing are severe ($10K+ per year, and worse if willful). FATCA (Form 8938) reports foreign financial assets — thresholds depend on filing status and US-vs-abroad residence ($200K end-of-year / $300K any-time for single filers abroad). Filed with your 1040.
State residency
Going abroad doesn’t automatically end your state-tax residency. Some states (CA, NY, NJ, NM, VA, MA) are known for keeping non-resident nomads on the tax rolls based on driver’s license, voter registration, address-of-record, family ties, returning frequency, etc. The clean play is to establish a new domicile in a no-income-tax state (TX, FL, NV, WA, SD, WY, AK, TN, NH) — typically paired with a mail-forwarding service for an address-of-record.
What this isn’t
Not tax or legal advice. The tool models FEIE, federal brackets, SE tax, FBAR, FATCA, and state stickiness — but skips the foreign tax credit, retirement contributions, ACA premium tax credits, treaty positions, partnership/S-corp / C-corp structures, state-specific rules beyond stickiness, social security totalization agreements, and dozens of other things that materially affect the actual return. Use it as a starting anchor before talking to one of the cross-border CPAs in our expat tax directory.