Expat Tax Calculator — Methodology

How This Calculator Works

US citizens are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live. The two main tools for avoiding double tax are the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE, IRS Form 2555) and the Foreign Tax Credit (FTC, Form 1116). This calculator estimates your US federal tax with no relief, then estimates how much each method would save, and suggests which is likely to suit you.

It also estimates the foreign housing exclusion, flags US states that are known to keep taxing former residents, and reminds you of FBAR and FATCA reporting.

Inputs and Assumptions

• Annual income and income type: W-2 and 1099 income is treated as 100% earned income; investment income as 0% earned; "mixed" as 70% earned and 30% investment (a fixed split the calculator assumes). Only earned income can be excluded under the FEIE.
• Filing status: Selects the 2026 federal brackets and basic standard deduction (for example $16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly). Married filing jointly is modelled as one earner: the income gets one $132,900 exclusion, and any destination tax is worked out as if one person earned it all. Each qualifying spouse has their own exclusion on their own earned income (IRS Publication 54), and Singapore taxes each spouse separately, so if you both work, run the calculator once per spouse with that spouse's earned income. Choosing married filing separately for each run is a modelling step, not advice to file separately: its 2026 brackets and standard deduction are half the joint ones, so with equal incomes the two runs add up exactly to the couple's joint US tax; with unequal incomes they add up to more, because a joint return pools the brackets, so read the US figures as an upper bound. In Hong Kong each run uses one spouse's HK$145,000 basic allowance; where one spouse earns less than that, joint assessment with the HK$290,000 married person's allowance can cost less than the two runs show.
• Destination country: For Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE, the destination's income tax is worked out from that tax authority's own rate table and rules (see Foreign tax below). For every other country the foreign tax is not estimated: the calculator shows the FEIE saving only and makes no FEIE-or-FTC call. The same applies to UAE self-employment income above AED 1,000,000 (see Foreign tax).
• Foreign housing cost: Your annual qualifying housing expenses abroad.
• Current US state: Used only for the state "stickiness" warning.

Assumptions: you live in the destination for the whole year and meet the bona fide residence or physical presence test; earned income is foreign-source (the work is done abroad); investment income is US-source (for example a US brokerage account) and is taxed at ordinary rates; you take the basic standard deduction.

Formula

taxable        = max(0, income − standardDeduction)
usBaseTax      = federalTax(taxable)                 // 2026 brackets

// FEIE (IRC §911), earned income only
excluded       = min(earnedIncome, $132,900)
// Stacking rule, §911(f): what is left is taxed at the
// rates that would apply if the excluded income were included
remaining      = max(0, income − excluded − standardDeduction)
taxAfterFEIE   = federalTax(remaining + excluded) − federalTax(excluded)
feieSavings    = usBaseTax − taxAfterFEIE

// Foreign housing exclusion (§911(c))
housingExcl    = max(0, min(housingCost, $39,870) − $21,264)
                 // base = 16% and cap = 30% of the FEIE limit

// Foreign tax: the country's own rates (see below), in local currency
foreignTax     = countryTax(earnedIncome, 'employment' | 'self-employment')
               + countryTax(investmentIncome, 'investment')
               // null (not estimated) if the country is not modelled

// FTC, Form 1116: the limit is US tax × foreign-source share of income
ftcLimit       = usBaseTax × earnedIncome / income
ftcSavings     = min(foreignTax, ftcLimit)

estimatedSaving = max(feieSavings, ftcSavings)

The suggestion compares the two computed savings, never a country's top rate:

• No US income tax on earned income (income under the standard deduction): "No US tax to relieve" in place of a method, because neither saves anything that year. This comes first, so it applies even where the destination's tax is not estimated. If the destination taxes the income, or its tax is not estimated, the text adds that a credit for it can be carried back 1 year and forward 10.
• Foreign tax not estimated: "consult a professional", with the FEIE saving shown.
• Investment income only: the FTC if the destination taxes it, otherwise "consult" (the FEIE cannot exclude investment income).
• The credit removes your whole US tax: the FTC (no residence test is needed, and unused credit can be carried back 1 year and forward 10).
• Earned income above the $132,900 limit and foreign tax paid: "consult", because claiming the exclusion and a credit for the foreign tax on the income above it can beat either alone, and that combination is not modelled.
• Otherwise, whichever of the two saves more.

Foreign tax

Income is converted from US dollars at the site's static ECB reference rates, taxed in the local currency, and converted back.

• Singapore (IRAS): resident rates from YA 2024 onwards, 0% on the first S$20,000 rising to 24% above S$1,000,000, applied to the whole of your earned income (resident: 183 days or more). Foreign-sourced income received by resident individuals is exempt, so investment income is not taxed. Personal reliefs (for example the earned income relief) and one-off rebates are not deducted, so the figure can be slightly high. In the year you arrive or leave you may spend fewer than 183 days there (for example 61 to 182), and IRAS's administrative concessions can still treat a foreign employee as resident for it: the two-year concession, when your employment straddles two calendar years and, with your stay just before and after it, covers a continuous period of at least 183 days (it excludes company directors, public entertainers and professionals); and the three-year concession, when you stay or work in Singapore continuously for three consecutive years, even with under 183 days in the first and third. A resident pays the progressive rates, often less than the 15% a non-resident employee pays at least. This calculator assumes you are resident for the whole year, so it applies neither.
• Hong Kong (IRD): salaries tax for 2026/27. Net chargeable income is income less the basic allowance (HK$145,000) or, for married filing jointly, the married person's allowance (HK$290,000). It is taxed at 2%, 6%, 10% and 14% on four bands of HK$50,000 and 17% above, but never more than the standard rate on income before allowances (15% on the first HK$5,000,000, 16% above). Self-employed income pays the lower of the two-tiered profits tax for unincorporated businesses (7.5% on the first HK$2,000,000, 15% above) and Personal Assessment. Hong Kong levies only profits, salaries and property tax, so an individual's dividends and interest are not taxed. Deductions such as MPF contributions and one-off tax reductions are not applied. Hong Kong's year of assessment runs from 1 April to 31 March: the calculator applies the 2026/27 allowances and rates to a calendar year's income, although January to March 2026 falls in 2025/26 (basic allowance HK$132,000, and a 100% tax reduction of up to HK$3,000). The 60-day visit test in IRD's PAM 42 is also counted per year of assessment, not per calendar year.
• United Arab Emirates: no income tax on individuals. A natural person's business income is subject to UAE Corporate Tax when business turnover exceeds AED 1,000,000 in a calendar year (Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023); wages and personal investment income are outside it at any amount. Corporate Tax is not modelled, so self-employment income above AED 1,000,000 (about $272,300 at the site's rate) is not estimated. Below that line the $0 assumes your business turnover, which can be more than your income, is also under AED 1,000,000.

Data Sources

• IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 — 2026 FEIE limit of $132,900, federal brackets and standard deductions.
• Internal Revenue Code §911 and IRS Publication 54 — the exclusion, the §911(f) stacking rule, and the housing base (16%) and cap (30%) of the exclusion limit.
• IRS Form 1116 instructions (2025) — the Foreign Tax Credit and its limit (lines 3a–3f, 18–21); IRS Publication 54 — no credit for foreign tax on excluded income, and the 1-year carryback and 10-year carryforward.
• FinCEN (31 CFR §1010.350 and §1010.306(c)) — FBAR filing when foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any time in the year.
• IRS Form 8938 instructions — FATCA thresholds for taxpayers living abroad ($200,000 at year-end or $300,000 at any time if single; $400,000 / $600,000 married filing jointly).
• Singapore — IRAS, Individual income tax rates and Working out my tax residency.
• Hong Kong — IRD, Allowances, Deductions and Tax Rate Table (PAM 61), A Guide to Salaries Tax for People Coming to Work in Hong Kong (PAM 42) and A Brief Guide to Taxes Administered by the IRD (2025/26).
• United Arab Emirates — u.ae, Taxation: "The UAE does not levy income tax on individuals." Ministry of Finance, Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023 (Article 2): the AED 1,000,000 turnover line for natural persons.
• Exchange rates — ECB euro reference rates of 2 October 2026, crossed through the US dollar.
• State residency guidance — published guidance from the revenue departments of CA, NY, NM, SC, VA.

Limitations

• Foreign tax is estimated only for Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE. Other countries are shown without a foreign tax figure until their rates are read from their own tax authority.
• Married filing jointly is one earner. A two-earner couple gets one exclusion and one destination tax figure; run the calculator once per spouse instead (see Inputs).
• The FTC limit uses one income category. Separate "baskets" (general and passive), carryovers from other years and the qualified-dividend adjustment are not modelled.
• The FEIE and FTC are compared as alternatives. Using both on different slices of income (the exclusion, plus a credit for the foreign tax on non-excluded income) is not modelled; when it could matter, the calculator says so instead of recommending one.
• Investment income is taxed at ordinary US rates. Qualified dividends and long-term gains are taxed at lower rates, so the US figure is an upper bound for them.
• The housing exclusion uses the standard 30% cap. The IRS publishes higher limits for many high-cost cities, which are not applied. The housing figure is shown separately and is not added to the FEIE saving.
• Self-employment tax is not included. The FEIE does not reduce it; a totalization agreement may.
• Tax treaties, the Net Investment Income Tax, the additional standard deduction for age 65+ and the temporary senior deduction are not modelled.
• FBAR and FATCA are flagged for everyone moving abroad on the assumption that you will hold foreign accounts. Check the thresholds above against your own balances.
• US state tax is not calculated; the state warning is a prompt to get advice, not an estimate.

Last Updated

July 2026 — FEIE limit moved to the 2026 figure.

October 2026 — Federal brackets moved to 2026 via the shared tax data module; FEIE saving corrected to apply the §911(f) stacking rule; methodology page published.

14 October 2026 — Foreign tax worked out from each tax authority's progressive rates (Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE) instead of income × the top rate, which overstated it (Singapore, $85,000: $20,400 against $5,204 on the IRAS table); other countries are not estimated. The FTC limit now uses the foreign-source share of income. The suggestion compares the computed savings instead of recommending the FTC whenever a country's top rate exceeds 22%.

14 October 2026 (re-audit notes) — UAE self-employment income above AED 1,000,000 is no longer shown as $0 but not estimated (Corporate Tax). Married filing jointly is stated as one earner. With no US income tax, the suggestion says there is none to relieve. Hong Kong's April-to-March year and Singapore's administrative concessions are stated.

14 October 2026 (re-check notes) — The married-filing-jointly note no longer says the per-spouse runs add up to about the joint US figures: they add up exactly with equal incomes and to more with unequal ones, so they are an upper bound. With no US income tax the suggestion reads "No US tax to relieve" instead of naming a method. Result text names the UAE as "the UAE".

14 October 2026 (follow-up notes) — Earned income with no US income tax now reads "No US tax to relieve" where the destination's tax is not estimated too, instead of "the FEIE alone would save about $0". The share image names that result in words instead of printing "none".