Do you qualify for the Streamlined Amnesty Program?
The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures turn on four main requirements, summarized below. They are the tests people fail most often, not the complete rule: the IRS also looks at whether you already have returns on file, whether your failure to file was non-willful, and whether any examination is already open. Working through these four tells you whether the route is worth a conversation. It does not tell you that you qualify, and nothing here is legal or tax advice on your situation.
The four tests people fail most often
These four are where most people find out the route is not open to them. They are not the whole of the program's requirements, and working through them does not establish that you qualify:
Filing Obligation
You must have a US tax filing obligation as a US citizen, green-card holder, or tax resident, and have failed to file required returns, pay taxes owed, or file FBAR disclosures.
Guidance: US citizens, dual citizens and green card holders are taxed on worldwide income, so living abroad does not by itself end the filing obligation. It is still an obligation only above the filing thresholds for your status, and the FBAR obligation only once the foreign accounts in which you have a financial interest or signature or other authority together top $10,000 at any point in the year. Whether you had a filing requirement in a given year is a year-by-year question.
Non-Willful Conduct
Your past failure to file must have been non-willful. The IRS defines that as conduct due to negligence, inadvertence, or mistake, or resulting from a good-faith misunderstanding of the law. Not knowing about the requirement can be part of that picture but does not settle it on its own, and the absence of concealment is not the test: recklessness and willful blindness can be willful even where nothing was actively hidden.
Guidance: Non-willful conduct is conduct due to negligence, inadvertence, or mistake, or conduct resulting from a good-faith misunderstanding of the law (IRM 4.26.16.5.5.1). It is a facts-and-circumstances test, not a single question. Assuming that paying tax in your country of residence was enough, or not knowing that US citizens are taxed on worldwide income, are the kinds of facts that can support it. They do not establish it on their own: recklessness and deliberately avoiding knowledge of the requirement can be willful even where nothing was concealed, and the certification is signed under penalties of perjury. If you are unsure which side your facts fall on, that is the question to resolve with a professional before filing anything.
Foreign Presence
This is the test for US citizens and lawful permanent residents: in at least one of the three most recent years for which the return due date (including any extension you properly applied for) has passed, you must have been physically outside the United States for at least 330 full days. Someone who is neither a citizen nor a green-card holder is tested differently, on whether they failed the substantial presence test in one of those years. On a joint return, both spouses must meet their applicable test.
Guidance: This is a day count rather than a judgment call, but it is stricter than it sounds. The 330 must be full days present in a foreign country. A day spent traveling between two foreign places still counts; what breaks a day is time in the US or its possessions, and travel over international waters that runs 24 hours or more. In practice that leaves roughly 35 days a year, and brief visits for vacation, business, or family all eat into them. This 330-day form of the test is the one for US citizens and green-card holders; someone who is neither is tested instead on failing the substantial presence test.
No US Abode
In that same year, you must not have had a US abode: your primary residence and the center of your domestic life were outside the United States. The IRS states this alongside the 330 days as a condition of the same year, and does not reduce it to a day count, so treat it as a separate question from the days rather than as something the 330 days settle. This condition, like the day count, belongs to the citizen and lawful-permanent-resident branch of the non-residency test. If you are neither, neither this card nor the day-count card applies to you: your test is whether you failed the substantial presence test in a covered year, and you should treat both cards as satisfied by that instead.
Guidance: An "abode" refers to your primary residence and center of domestic life. It is a facts-and-circumstances question rather than a checklist, and the IRS points to the definition of abode in IRC section 911(d)(3) and its regulations without setting out a formula. US property you rent out, or a relative's address used for mail, is generally weaker evidence of a US abode than a home you keep available for your own use. Because it is judged on the whole picture, it is one of the tests people most often get wrong about themselves.
What the program commits you to
If the four above describe you, the next thing worth knowing is what is on the other side of the door, because the scope is fixed by the program and is not negotiable. This is the part that decides whether the route is one you want, separately from whether you qualify for it.
- Three years of tax returns and six years of FBARs. The return window and the FBAR window are different lengths, which surprises most people. You file the three most recent years for which the due date has passed, and six years of FBARs covering the same period and three years further back. The year counts are not the whole requirement: you must also pay all tax and applicable statutory interest due with the submission.
- A certification that your failure was non-willful, on Form 14653 under the foreign procedures or Form 14654 under the domestic ones. Which form applies follows from the non-residency test, not simply from where you live now. This is not a checkbox. It is a written statement of your specific facts, signed under penalties of perjury, and it is the document the IRS actually evaluates. If the honest version of your story does not support it, the program is the wrong route and signing anyway is the serious mistake.
- The FBARs are filed separately, with FinCEN, not the IRS. They go electronically through the BSA E-Filing System while the returns and the certification go to the IRS by mail. Two filings, two agencies, one engagement. A quote that covers only the returns is not a complete package, and this is the most common gap to check for when comparing them.
If all four criteria describe your situation, fill out the secure intake form below. Our partner firm will review your facts and email you within two business days, usually with a short Tax Questionnaire to capture a snapshot of your situation, which sets the basis for a customized, flat-fee scope of work.
If one or more of these rules seems ambiguous in your case, you should still request an assessment and describe your situation in the text field. Expat tax compliance frequently turns on specific facts, and a direct review is what gets your options assessed against the facts you actually have.
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